NOTE: In this two-part series, FCA US highlights the importance of child safety seats, sharing some startling facts today and tips on how to choose the right car seat tomorrow.
Children count on their parent or caregiver to help keep them safe – and making sure they are properly buckled in the back seat of the car is essential. Motor vehicle crashes are a leading killer of children 12 and younger. From 2010 to 2014, an estimated 601,000 children were injured and 3,181 were killed while riding in cars, pickups, vans and SUVs.
That’s why National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) dedicated Sept. 18-24, 2016, as Child Passenger Safety Week, aiming to raise awareness by informing parents not only to choose, but to correctly install the right car seats for their children.
Consider this research that shows the impact of correct usage of car seats:
- In passenger cars, child safety seats reduce the risk of fatal injury by 71% for infants and by 54% for toddlers. For infants and toddlers in light trucks, the corresponding reductions were 58% and 59%, respectively.
- Most parents are confident that they have correctly installed their child’s car seat, but in most cases (59%), the seat has not been installed correctly.
FCA US has a history of supporting NHTSA’s initiatives for Child Passenger Safety Week. In 2015, FCA US invited employees to participate in a Child Passenger Safety Seat Awareness event in the company’s Auburn Hills Tech Center, where the company’s chief child safety seat spokesperson walked them through the significant mistakes parents and caregivers often make when installing and using car and booster seats.
At the event last year, Audrey Eagle, certified child passenger safety technician, shared a list of dos and don’ts, as you can see below, when installing children’s car seats. While the tips in the video still hold true today, parents, guardians and caregivers can also visit www.safercar.gov/parents to learn other tips on car seat safety, watch more how-to videos and sign up for car seat recall notifications.
