It’s back to school for the young ones and that means that the carpool lane will outside schools and kindergartens will again be packed by anxious, hurried, sometimes irritated parents. If you’re one of them, remember to always put your child’s safety first, regardless of your mood, the length of the ride or how busy traffic is.
SEAT says that 1 in every 3 children are not strapped correctly in their carseats. Clearly simply buying a carseat and putting your child in it is not enough to warrant he or she is safe in case of an impact, so the carmaker is offering the 10 “golden rules” that could make the difference between life and death in a crash.
The first rule is that you should buy the appropriate category of carseat, depending on your child’s height and weight. Age is not enough to determine which seat you should buy, so measure your child before the purchase because “the design of each one meets the specific requirements to protect children’s bodies,” Javier Luzón from the department of Vehicle Safety Development at SEAT says.
Children should always sit in the rear seats, because they are the safest. The only exception is when those seats are occupied by other children and you have to place one in the front, or when the car doesn’t have rear seats. In this case, you must deactivate the airbag before starting off.
Fasten the carseat correctly, either using the Isofix or with the seatbelts. Follow the instructions from the maker and make sure you go through all the steps. Check to see if you missed one.
Make sure the harnesses are tight. If you can pinch the harness, this means the child is not strapped in correctly, so tighten in. In case of a crash, if the harness is not tight, the child’s body can slip out and be seriously injured.
Buy a rear-facing carseat and keep the child facing the rear as long as possible. In some countries, there are laws saying children must be placed facing the rear at least until they’re 15 months old, but experts recommend transporting them this way for as long as possible.
Allow no exceptions for correctly strapping the child in. Short trips to school or to run errands are statistically the most likely times when an accident can occur, so take no risks when it comes to your child’s safety.
Remove all outerwear and backpacks before placing a child in the carseat, SEAT continues. Harnesses should be tight across the chest so, if the child is wearing a jacket or a backpack, there’s the risk they might slip off.
All equipment or extra luggage should be placed in the trunk of the car, because it could become a projectile in case of an impact. Make sure you fasten your seatbelt, too: as all parents know, children tend to do what they see us do and not what we tell them.
Last but not least, “in the event of an accident: whenever possible, children must be removed from the car in their seat,” SEAT says. “Do not carry them out in your arms unless there is an immediate risk of danger as this could cause a serious injury.”
Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends. Full profile
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