The following tips will help keep your children safe while traveling in a car.
· All children 12 and under must ride in the back seat. This is the safest place for children.
· Infants should ride in rear-facing child safety seats until they’re at least 1-year-old and 20 pounds in weight. Never place a rear facing seat in front of an airbag.
· Once a toddler is over 1-year-old and between 20 and 40 pounds, they’re ready for a toddler or convertible seat.
· After outgrowing toddler seats, children are still not ready for adult seat belts alone. To make seat belts fit snuggly, young children over 40 pounds, between 4 and 8-years-old and shorter than 4’9” need booster seats.
· Make sure seat belts fit properly. They should be worn with the lap portion of the belt low and tight across the hips, and with the shoulder portion across the shoulders without cutting across the face and neck.
· Did you know 90 percent of child safety seats aren’t used correctly? When in doubt, call your local police station to make an appointment with a certified child passenger safety technician who can tell you whether you are using yours right.
· If you are taking your child in a taxi, call ahead and make sure the taxi has working seat belts. If the taxi company cannot provide a car seat, bring your own.
· Do not purchase a secondhand child safety seat. If you do not know the history of the seat, assume it isn’t safe.
· Always mail in the registration card that comes with your child safety seats so you’ll hear about potential product recalls. A list of recalled seats is available on the U.S. Office of Defects Investigation web site.
· Do not use a car seat that has been in a motor vehicle crash.
· Make sure to set a good example by wearing your seat belt too! Remember, Wisconsin law requires that you and your child are restrained every time you ride in your car.
· They do their job best when everyone is buckled and kids are properly restrained in the back seat.
o Air bags saved an estimated 1,043 lives in 1998 alone. However, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that tragically 99 children have been killed or injured by the force of a deploying air bag. In many cases, the children were riding in the front seat either in a rear-facing child safety seat or "out of position" - either unbuckled, or not wearing the shoulder portion of the safety belt.
o An air bag is not a soft, billowy pillow. Rather, to work effectively, an air bag comes out of the dashboard at rates of up to 200 miles per hour - faster than a blink of an eye. Drivers can entirely eliminate any danger to children from a deploying air bag by placing kids properly restrained in the back seat. With or without an air bag, the back seat is the safest place for children to ride.
o As the number of motor vehicles equipped with air bags increases, the risk to kids riding in the front seat will also increase. That is why we must all work to educate people now that air bags save lives and work best when everyone is buckled and kids are in back, properly buckled up.
Air bags and safety belts save lives. All Americans, and especially parents and caregivers, need to understand how to maximize the lifesaving capabilities of these safety devices and minimize the risks.
· KIDS RIDE IN BACK. Infants should NEVER ride in the front seat of a vehicle with a passenger air bag. Children, typically ages 12 and under, also should ride buckled up in the back seat.
· CHILD SAFETY SEATS. Young children and infants always should ride in age- and size-appropriate child safety seats. The safety seat should be held properly in place by the vehicle's safety belts and the child should be correctly buckled in the child safety seat. A child who has outgrown a convertible child safety seat will need to ride in a booster seat for the vehicle's safety belts to fit properly.
· WEAR BOTH LAP AND SHOULDER BELTS. The shoulder strap should cross the collarbone, and the lap belt should fit low and tight. The shoulder strap should never be slipped behind the back or under the arm - this is a dangerous habit, especially in cars with air bags.
· MOVE THE FRONT SEATS BACK. Driver and front passenger seats should be moved as far back as possible, particularly for shorter statured people.
For more information, contact the Air Bag & Seat Belt Safety Campaign, National Safety Council, 1025 Conn. Ave., NW, Suite 1200, Washington, DC 20036; (202) 625-2570 (tel.); (202) 822-1399 (fax); E-mail:
· Set a good example by always wearing a seat belt.
· Children can easily become restless or irritable when on a long road trip. Try to keep him occupied by pointing out interesting sights along the way and by bringing soft, lightweight toys and favorite CDs for a sing-along.
· Plan to stop driving and give yourself and your child a break about every two hours.
· Never leave your child alone in a car, even for a minute. Temperatures inside the car can reach deadly levels in minutes, and the child can die of heat stroke.
· In addition to a travelers' health kit (http://www.cdc.gov/travel/yb/index.htm), parents should carry safe water and snacks, child-safe hand wipes, diaper rash ointment, and a water- and insect-proof ground sheet for safe play outside.
· Parents running quick errands may think their cars will remain cool, but even on mild days temperatures inside vehicles can rise to dangerous levels in minutes. A young child’s core body temperature can increase three to five times faster than that of an adult, causing permanent injury or death.
· The family car parked in the driveway can also be dangerous. Unlocked cars pose serious risks to children who are naturally curious and often lack fear. Once they crawl in, young children don’t have the developmental capability to get out. One-third of the heat-related deaths in 2000 occurred when children crawled into unlocked cars while playing and became trapped.
Protecting Your Family
Heat
· Never leave your child in an unattended car, even with the windows down.
· Check to make sure all children leave the vehicle when you reach your destination, particularly when loading and unloading. Don’t overlook sleeping infants.
· Make sure you check the temperature of the child safety seat surface and safety belt buckles before restraining your children in the car.
· Use a light covering to shade the seat of your parked car. Consider using windshield shades in front and back windows.
Trunk Entrapment
· Teach children not to play in or around cars.
· Keep car keys out of reach and sight.
· Always lock car doors and trunks, especially when parked in the driveway or near the home.
· Keep the rear fold-down seats closed to help prevent kids from getting into the trunk from inside the car.
· Be wary of child-resistant locks. Teach older children how to disable the driver’s door locks if they unintentionally become entrapped in a motor vehicle.
· Contact your automobile dealership about getting your vehicle retrofitted with a trunk release mechanism.
· If your child gets locked inside a car, get him out and dial 9-1-1 or your local emergency number immediately.
Why Kids Are at Risk
· The popularity of trucks is growing every year, and more parents are using trucks to transport their families. Children are 10 times more likely to die when riding in a cargo bed than while riding in the passenger area. Each year, children account for more than half of the 200 deaths resulting from riding in cargo beds. Ejection during a crash is the most common cause of death and injury. However, even if there is no crash and you are driving at a low speed, sudden swerving, stopping or bumpy roads can cause injury to children in the cargo bed or who fall out of the vehicle. Cargo covers do not provide protection. In fact, they can potentially lead to carbon monoxide poisoning.
Protecting Your Family
· Never allow anyone to ride in the bed of a pickup truck.
· Always use child safety seats and/or safety belts correctly.
· Child safety seats must not be used on side-facing or rear-facing jump seats.
· Be sure at least 80 percent of the child safety seat base is on the truck’s seat.
· Never place a rear-facing infant seat in front of an air bag. Please see your owner’s manual regarding the passenger air bag cut-off switch.
· Restrain children ages 12 and under in the back in a forward-facing seat. If there is no back seat available, forward-facing children (over 1 year of age and at least 20 pounds) should be placed in their appropriate child safety seat with the vehicle seat pushed as far back as possible.
KIDS AND CARS stands for the right of every child to be protected from disability or death due to being left unattended in or around a vehicle, and the right of every parent and caregiver to be free of worry, confident each child is protected from such sudden and preventable dangers.
Children should never be left unattended in or around parked cars. There are just too many risks. Below are just some of the dangers children are exposed to:
· Being inadvertently backed over in a driveway or parking lot;
· Being left in a vehicle where the temperatures can reach deadly levels in minutes;
· Knocking the vehicle into gear and setting the vehicle into motion;
· Strangulation by a power window, sunroof or power accessory;
· Being taken by a stranger in the course of a car theft;
· Hopping into a car trunk during an innocent game of hide-and-seek;
· Carbon monoxide poisoning;
· Finding matches that set the car aflame;
· Leaving the vehicle alone to go to the bathroom, or to go looking for you;
· Being kidnapped from the vehicle.