Safety experts are offering parents tips on how to properly install car seats. A recent study shows than 70 percent of car seats are improperly used. And most parents don’t know they’ve done anything wrong.
Julie Kleinert is the Chevrolet technical fellow for child passenger safety. She said car seats give children the neck and spine support they need.
“We want children to be rear facing until two, that’s best practice. When they turn around forward facing we want them to be in that harness as long as possible. That will keep them safest.
Kleinert said, there are five quick checks parents can do to ensure the car seat is secured.
“The first tip is making sure they are in right car seat. They also have expiration dates, so that’s another thing to check. The next thing we look at is are they sitting in the right place in the vehicle. The next step is to make sure they are facing the right direction, we want kids rear facing as long as possible.”
Safety experts said children should be in a car seat or booster seat until they are at least four foot nine. They said once kids are too big for either a car or booster seat they still should remain in the back seat until the age of 13.