Keeping your family safe while driving should be one of your highest priorities. Over 97,000 children in the country were injured in car crashes in 2018 because of poorly-installed car seats. Buying and installing the right car seat can reduce the risk of death by as much as 71 percent.
Despite the many improvements in car seat design, many parents find car seat installation very confusing. To help, a Subaru dealership near Covington shares some helpful tips in selecting and installing the right car seat for your children.
Choose a car seat based on the child’s size, age, and developmental needs.
If your child is an infant or a toddler, the rule of thumb is to buy a rear-facing car seat until they are old (or tall) enough to switch to forward-facing seats with a harness. If your child exceeds the weight or height limit of a forward-facing seat, then you can safely switch to a belt-positioning booster seat. All children who are 13 years or younger must ride in the back seat. Older children can safely sit in the vehicle with seat belts correctly fastened.
Use either the LATCH or seatbelt to secure the car seat.
You can secure car safety seats in two ways: you can use the vehicle’s lower anchors and tethers (also known as LATCH), or you can use the seat belt. LATCH is an attachment system that uses the lower anchors to install the car seat and the top tethers to secure it safely. The LATCH system is a unique feature of vehicles manufactured after 2002. If you are using the seatbelt, just make sure that it can hold the car seat tightly. Many car seats have their own built-in locks that will help you secure the belt without separately locking the seat belt.
Using either LATCH or the seat belts are equally safe – just make sure that you don’t use both at the same time (unless the vehicle’s manufacturer says it’s okay to do so).
Contact a child passenger safety (CPS) technician to know the best place to install a car safety seat.
A technician from a Subaru dealership in Covington will tell you that it is always tricky to decide where to place a car safety seat. Some experts believe that the safest place is right in the middle of the back seat, but this isn’t always possible as some vehicles have a narrow or uneven middle seat. Parents, especially those who have infant and toddler kids, can benefit significantly from the services of a CPS technician. They can tell you where to install your car safety seat and ensure that everything is adequately secured.
When it comes to your children’s safety, you need to go all out. For more information on how to choose and install the correct car safety seat, check out Baldwin Subaru.
