Safety Tips
Car Seat Safety
Toddlers
What You Need to Know
Use a forward-facing car seat
Safe Kids Scotts Bluff County
1405 O Street, Gering, NE 69341 Phone: 308-436-8040
Inspection Stations
LATCH
(Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children)
Almost all cars and car seats made since September 2002 must have LATCH.
LATCH locks a car seat into the vehicle without using the safety belts. Older cars and car seats may not have LATCH.
Read your owner’s manual and car seat instructions to see if you can use LATCH.
Both LATCH and safety belts provide the same protection. Use one or other, not both.
Does your child exceed the car seat’s height and weight limits?
Are your child’s shoulders above the car seat’s top harness slots?
Are the tops of your child’s ears above the the top the car seat?
Older than age 1 and more than 20 pounds
Use a forward-facing car seat correctly in a back seat every time your toddler rides in a car.
Use the right car seat with a harness for your toddler’s weight and height. Toddlers are weighed and measured at every doctor visit, so be sure to keep track.
Use the car’s safety belt or LATCH system to lock the car seat into the car. Your car seat should not move more than one inch side to side or front to back. Grab the car seat at the safety beltpath or LATCH path to test it.
Put harnesses through the slots so they are even with or above the child’s shoulders. Some seats require use of the top slots when the seat is forward-facing, so check instructions.
Be sure the harness is tight, so you can’t pinch extra webbing at the shoulder.
Use a top tether if your vehicle and car seat are both so equipped. Tethers limit the forward motion of your child’s head in a crash. If you don’t have them, contact your car dealer and car seat manufacturer.
Adjust the chest clip to armpit level.
A child is too big for the seat when the shoulders are above the top slots, the tops of the ears are above the back of the seat or the weight limit is exceeded. Move to a taller car seat or a booster seat. Many children will outgrow the harness of a forward-facing car seat at age 4 or 5.
Be sure all occupants wear safety belts correctly every time. Children learn from adult role models.
(convertible or combo seat) until the harness no longer fits. Take the next step to a booster seat when you answer “yes” to any of these questions:
2009 Safe Kids Scotts Bluff County. All rights reserved.
Safe Kids Scotts Bluff County is a member of Safe Kids Worldwide, a global network of organizations whose mission is to prevent accidental childhood injury, a leading killer of children 14 and under.
3350 10th Street
Gering Nebraska
308-635-3089
Scottsbluff Fire Dept
1818 Avenue A
Scottsbluff, Nebraska
Appointments are mandatory!
Reduced cost seats on an as-needed basis,
prior arrangements must be made.
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