Safety
AROUND YOUR HOME

Car seat safety: buckle up!

Rebecca Douglas

Parents in the '90s use child car seats and seat belts with their children more frequently than any other previous generation of parents. Parents today know it is the law to have a car seat and use seat belts with their children. Yet not all children are safely buckled up at all times. Why is this? Think about these situations:

• It's a six-hour drive to your parents' home. Your nine-month old infant gets fussy and cries in her car seat. It's so tempting to hold her for just a little while.

• Your extremely intelligent 15-month old son has discovered how to unbuckle himself and repeatedly does so, laughing when you say, "NO!" You can't reach him while driving.

• The two-year old in your family is independent and screams when you buckle her in. "NO BUCKLE!" is loudly proclaimed until you feel your determination begin to waver.

• It's just a short trip to the corner market. It's just too much trouble to buckle up.

• You have a few extra kids today, and not enough seats. We can't all fit in one car to go to the pool if we use the car seats.

These are real dilemmas parents of young children face frequently. Life is short and difficulties raising kids are many. It's tempting to make life a little easier and just skip the buckle-up routine. But motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of injury-related deaths among children under 14. Seventy-five percent of car crashes occur within 25 miles of home, going less that 40 miles an hour. That's the trip to the corner store or the swimming pool.

Seat belts and car seats don't work if we don't use them, but are extremely effective at saving lives if used correctly. Using car safety seats reduces risk of death for infants by 71 percent and 54 percent for children ages one to four. We believe over 300 children are still alive because they were buckled safely in 1997.

While approximately 85 percent of parents of infants do use car safety seats, it's harder it seems to get those older one to four year-olds buckled up. Only about 60 percent these kids are restrained. Unfortunately they are much more likely to be injured or killed in a car crash.

It's also important for the parents who do take time to buckle up the kids to do it correctly. A recent study showed that as many as 85 percent of parents install and use car safety seats incorrectly. The most common misuses include:

• Safety belt not holding seat in tightly

• Harness retainer clip not at armpit level

• Locking clip not used

• Safety belt not locked

• Car seat recalled and not repaired

• Children turned forward racing before one year of age and 20 pounds.

If you would like to learn more, try visiting these websites: http:// www.safekids.org or parentingplace.com.

Rebecca Douglas is an extension educator, Family Life, at the Springfield Extension Center.

16 ILLINOIS COUNTRY LIVING JULY 1999