Public News Service-ID
July 13, 2010
70% Use Child Car Seats Wrong, Even When Following ID Law?
BOISE, Idaho - With families piling into cars and trucks for summer vacations, Idaho parents could use a little help with the car seats, according to Dr. Kathy Judy, a pediatrician from Loyola University School of Medicine. She's been trying to understand why car crashes are still the number-one killer of children and has come up with at least one reason: incorrect car seat installation.
She says 70 percent of the time, parents install car seats wrong, buckle their children up incorrectly, or don't put kids in booster seats. Dr. Judy's first tip: If the safety seat can be moved, from side to side or front to back, by an inch or more, it's not installed properly. And she admits it's a tough job.
"Even when I tried to put our car seat in, then I went to the police department and they said, 'Oh, this is way too loose.' And they buckled it down so much tighter, even."
Dr. Judy says many parents don't realize that booster seats should be used until a child weighs 80 pounds and is 57 inches tall - and that confusion is understandable, because Idaho law only requires a booster seat for children up to age seven, regardless of height or weight.
"Every day that I'm counseling parents in clinic, there's not a day that goes by that there's not somebody who's not putting their child in a booster."
Dr. Judy says the five-point harness seats work well for babies and toddlers, but most parents place the chest clip too low.
"Shoulder straps need to be at or below the shoulder, and the chest clip, it needs to be at about the level of the armpits."
In Idaho, most police stations, and some fire stations and hospitals provide seat check services for free. Listings of locations are online at seatcheck.org
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