Most Common Car Seat Mistakes Parents Make

If you have children then you know buckling them into a child safety seat is the law no matter where you live in the U.S.  In all 50 states, children up to 3 years of age are required to ride in car seats when in private vehicles. Many states even have laws that require a child to ride in a car seat or booster seat until they are even older. The reason? Each year tens of thousands of children are injured in car accidents and about a thousand are killed. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), motor vehicle crashes are one of the leading causes of death in children. The use of a safety seat may dramatically reduce the risk of serious injury or death in a collision.

Many parents have their children in car seats but unfortunately some fail to realize they are contributing to that risk by making common mistakes. It’s never a good idea to use an old or secondhand car seat. Older car seats are more likely to be missing proper installation instructions, could be missing parts, been involved in an accident, or recalled due to fault in design. One of the biggest mistakes made is not installing the car seat correctly. This includes not using the right type of seat belt to secure the child in the booster seat or not buckling the car seat tight enough.

Since children have large heads and weak necks, in a head-on collision, the child’s head may jerk violently resulting in spinal injuries. For this reason, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends you keep your child rear-facing for as long as possible (until the age of 2) or until the child reaches the seat’s maximum rear-facing weight and height limits. Surprisingly enough, many parents that are cited with car seat violations have a child buckled into the car seat but do not have the seat itself buckled to the seat of the car. To know if your child is ready to use an adult seat belt, make sure they are at a height of at least 4 feet 9 inches and they can sit against the back of the seat with their knees bent at the edge of the seat. Also, the lap belt should rest flat across their upper thighs and the shoulder belt on the middle of their shoulder and chest.

If you or someone you know has been involved in a car crash or truck accident in Detroit, Grand Rapids, Warren, Sterling Heights, Lansing, Flint, Ann Arbor, Livonia, Dearborn, Canton, Westland, Troy, Farmington Hills, Southfield, Waterford or any other city in Michigan, make sure to contact Motor City Accident Attorneys by calling 1-800-411-PAIN. Motor City Accident Attorneys know how stressful a car accident can be and want to help you get back on your feet. They will fight tirelessly for your rights and help you get the compensation you deserve, according to your specific case. Make sure to follow Motor City Accident Attorneys on Twitter (@MCAccidentAtty) and Facebook. Join the conversation by using #MCAA.