Child Safety Seat Guide

Safety Restraint Misuse

• At least 3 out of 4 safety seats are unintentionally misused. Partial misuse of a safety seat reduces its effectiveness against severe injuries.

• Parents' top 3 mistakes when installing traditional safety seats include:

• Failure to secure the seat tightly
• Failure to secure the harness straps tightly
• Incorrect positioning of the chest clip

• To help guard against misuse of safety seats, parents should always:

• READ seat instructions, labels, and vehicle owner's manual
• Install the seat tightly (less than 1 inch of movement) & lock the safety belt
• Position the harness straps tightly
• The primary cause of injuries from misuse of booster seats is the misrouting of the safety belt. Common misuses of booster seats and safety belts include:
  
  
  • Shoulder belts being placed behind the child's back,
  • under the child's arm, or
  • over the booster seat arm rest
  • Shoulder belts not being places at mid-shoulder position
  • Shoulder belts being positioned too loosely

Find and attend a seat check event—start by clicking here: http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cps/cpsfitting/index.cfm

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For installation help and more information, consider these helpful sites:

www.nhtsa.dot.gov (choose Child Safety Seats from the topics menu)

http://www.safekids.org/safety-basics/safety-resources-by-risk-area/car-seats-boosters-seat-belts-/

www.preventinjuriesva.com (go to the child passenger safety section)

www.chkd.org/carseats

stokes.chop.edu/programs/carseat/

http://www.healthychildren.org/english/safety-prevention/on-the-go/pages/car-safety-seats-information-for-families.aspx

To find a seat check event: http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cps/cpsfitting/