Tips For Ensuring Child Car Seat Safety

Today’s child car restraint systems are true lifesavers, but only when installed correctly and only when parents properly transition their children from rear-facing to front-facing to booster-seat protection at the right times.

A new AAA analysis of five years of government crash data reveals a concerning trend: Child seat and booster seat use declines after children turn 3, despite the continued need for these safety devices. From 2018 to 2022, more than 4 million children ages 11 and under were involved in car crashes, resulting in 547,000 injuries and nearly 3,000 fatalities. Shockingly, 74 percent of car seats inspected in 2023 were improperly installed or used.

AAA member Amanda Copping, a new parent from Columbus, Ohio, describes her first attempt at installing a car seat for her daughter. “It wasn’t easy,” she recalls. “My husband and I really needed to keep checking each other.”

Copping advises new parents to have a car seat’s installation checked by a certified technician. “It would have definitely eased our minds,” she says.

When used correctly, child restraints in passenger cars reduce fatalities by 71 percent for infants younger than age 1 and by 54 percent for children ages 1 to 4, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Yet parents often transition children out of the appropriate car seats before it is safe, says AAA’s Kellie O’Riordan, who has served as a child passenger safety specialist at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus. “We would see a lot of injuries—especially spinal cord injuries—with children who were turned forward-facing too soon. Parents are in too much of a hurry to face their children forward. But a baby’s head and neck cannot support the extreme forces of a crash.”

O’Riordan reminds parents and caregivers:

• Car seats expire anywhere from 4 to 12 years after their manufacture date. The expiration date will be found on a label or embedded in the car seat itself.
• Even a non-severe crash can render a car seat unsafe.
• Counterfeit car seats exist online and must be avoided. If you purchase a car seat online, do so on the manufacturer’s website. You’ll want to look for the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 213 product label.
• Lower-income families should reach out to their local health department or birthing hospital to see if assistance is available.

For additional child passenger safety resources, including how to get a car seat checked and answers to car seat questions, visit SafeKids.org or the National Child Passenger Safety Board website at CPSboard.org.