Keeping kids buckled up safely
ONE of the most important jobs you have as a parent is keeping your child safe when they are travelling in a vehicle. And the number way to do this is by ensuring your child is safely buckled up. South Africa’s rules of the road require that all people travelling in a vehicle wear seat belts and that all children under three years old are strapped into a properly secured car seat.
Seat belts and car seats are important because they have been proven to save lives. They reduce the seriousness of injuries and prevent the child from being ejected from the vehicle in an accident. They also prevent injury to other passengers – an unbuckled child could be hurled forward in a crash, injuring front seated passengers. As a parent, it’s important that you:
1. Find a car seat that fits your child.
As children grow, how they sit in your car will change. Make sure the car seat you buy is designed to fit your child’s current size and age.
2. Ensure that the car seat is the right fit for your car.
• Not all car seats fit in all cars. Test the car seat you plan to buy to make sure it fits well in your car.
• Read your car’s manual, the label on the seat belt and the instructions on the car seat itself, to make sure you use the car seat correctly.
3. Choose the right direction (rear or forward-facing).
Kids who sit in rear-facing car seats have the best protection for the head, neck and spine. It’s especially important for rear-facing children to ride in a back seat, away from the airbag.
• Infants (birth to 1 year): if your child is younger than 1 year and/or weighs less than 9kg, they should sit in a rear-facing seat with the harness straps at shoulder level.
• Toddlers (up to 4 years): if your child is older than 1 year and/or weighs 10kg or more, they can sit in forward-facing seats, with the harness straps at their shoulders.
• Young children (4-12 years): if your child weighs more than 18kg they can sit in a front-facing booster seat, which must be used with both the lap and shoulder belt securely fastened.
Make sure the lap belt fits below and tight across the lap/upper thigh and that the shoulder belt fits snugly across the chest and shoulder. This will help avoid abdominal injuries.
For the best protection, keep your baby in a rear-facing car seat for as long as possible – at least until about two years old.
You will find the exact height and weight limit on the side or back of your car seat.
4. Take the next step to a booster seat when you answer “yes” to any of these questions:
• Does your child exceed the car seat’s height or 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 top of the car seat?
Booster seats are best used only when a child has outgrown a safety seat.
Booster seats raise the seating position of the child so that the adult seat-belt lies properly across the chest, crossing diagonally at the child’s shoulder rather than the neck, and low across the pelvis. Always ensure that you keep the booster seat on the back seat of the car.
5. Choose the middle for most safety
It may be hard to believe that there is one area of the back seat that is best for your children, but studies have proven that the middle seat is the safest place. If you have more than one car seat, the centre seat and the seat behind the passenger are the best places to install your car seats.
6. Avoid using an old or second-hand seat.
If you must use a second-hand seat, make sure it has the original instructions (or contact the manufacturer for a replacement copy), has all its parts (check the manual), has never been involved in a serious accident, and hasn’t been recalled.