TEACH BABY CAR SEAT SAFETY

Baby car seats are supposed to offer parents the peace of mind that they are keeping their infant as safe as possible while riding in an automobile. Studies show, however, that 8 out of 10 children riding in car seats are incorrectly buckled-in. Car crashes are the leading cause of death for children, and thousands of kids every day are put at additional risk simply because they are not properly protected.

Worse still: Most parents have no clue that they are doing anything wrong. Surveys show that 97 percent of parents believe they are using their child safety seats correctly. Many never know the truth until it is too late.

The two main issues in car seat safety are:

• The child must be buckled into the seat correctly.
• The seat must be buckled tightly into the vehicle.

It sounds so easy, yet the reality is that mistakes are the norm.

The good news is that there are a wide variety of free resources available to help parents achieve maximum car seat safety. You can help make our roadways much safer for children by alerting parents to be absolutely certain that their car safety seats are being used properly.

• Certified car seat inspectors are available in most communities to offer free help. Car seat safety checks take only a few minutes. Make others aware of this service by printing out car seat safety posters for community bulletin boards at apartments, parks, libraries, recreation centers, and at the office.
• Pass along the web address for Partners for Child Passenger Safety (http://stokes.chop.edu/programs/carseat/) to ten friends who have children under the age of 10. The site presents instructional videos for installing car seats and offers information on choosing the correct seat for each age.
• Contact your local police station to see if it has a courtesy officer who could do on-the-spot safety seat inspections one day at your local school or church.
• Consider purchasing an infant car seat as a gift for new parents. Since car seat needs change as children age, consider buying a new children's car seat or a booster car seat for older children, too. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's website offers car seat safety ratings for many popular brands.