April 19th, 2018 | Updated on May 2nd, 2024
Parents love traveling with their kids. Riding in these cars comes with a great responsibility for the parent or the adult in charge. It is very important to ensure all the safety rules are followed when handling kids – this applies to school buses that ferry kids.
Car crashes are the number one killer of kids in the U.S. Every parent or guardian should, therefore, be committed to keeping the kids safe at all times by ensuring they strictly follow the rules.
Precautions for safe driving with Kids on board
- Rules are made to be followed for your own good but how often do you break them? Here is a sneak peak of important rules that ought to be followed to the core.
- Ensure that your car is in a good working condition – Not just the engine and the oils, though that is very important too, but ensure the safety belts and the airbags are in place. Be sure the driver is also in good condition; not drunk or high on drugs.
- Infants shouldn’t ride in the front seat – No matter how short the distance you are traveling to is, do not put infants on the front seat. Always have them at the back restrained in an infant seat, child safety seat or a convertible vehicle seat for a child. Never have them ride without these safety measures in place. The safest place for your little one is the center of the back seat.
- Ensure proper use of safety belts – Anyone riding in the car that has airbags should always buckle the lap and shoulder seat belt for safety purposes. Not doing this may result in serious injuries in case the airbag inflates.
- Be sure to check that your car safety seat fits your child – The car safety seat should fit the child, fit the car and be correctly installed in the back seat. Don’t move around in a seat that is loosely fitted – this is dangerous. The seat should be firmly secured to the vehicle and the child should be firmly secured to the seat.
- The car safety seat should be correctly installed to perform well in case of a crush – This is where many people fail. Though the kid is in the safety seat, they still sustain injuries or die because the safety seats were not properly used. By ensuring that the seat belt feels stiff on the kid and the car seat does not move more than an inch on either front or back, then the child is secured properly.
Use the right car safety seat for your kids
- Different car safety seats are suitable for different ages. The manufacturer knew best by making them all different. They have different features that fit your kids according to their age as advised by the manufacturers.
- The rear-facing infant seats – These car safety seats are for infants that are up to 2 years and should weigh between22 and35 pounds. These seats are highly critical in ensuring infants have a proper head and neck support while driving around with them.
- The convertible safety seats – These safety seats either face backward or forward. They are suitable for toddlers aged 2-4 years weighing between 30 and 40 pounds. Infants who also outgrow the rear-facing seats due to their weight or height should also use this car safety seat.
- The booster seats – These seats are used to transition kids to using seat belts normally aged 8 and 12 years old. They are commonly used by kids who have outgrown their convertible seats but are not yet tall enough, over 4 feet, to use the seat belts. The seat belts are built for adults. Therefore, there is need to protect the kids from injury in case of an accident.
- The combined child seat and booster seat – These seats normally come in a three in one package to be used until your child weighs about 40 pounds. By removing the internal harness, you make it into a belt-positioning booster seat that will grow up with them until they can confidently use the seat belt.
- Lap and shoulder belts – Older children, 8 years and above, who weigh more than 80 pounds can comfortably use the lap and shoulder belts. These kids ought to be about 4 feet and 9 inches tall to be able to use them effectively. The lap belt stays low and snug across the hips without riding up over the stomach. The shoulder belt does not cross the neck. These safety belts keep the kids always firmly secure to their position in case of an accident, protecting them from injuries or death.
