Protect Your Most Precious Cargo (Your Kids) With These Child Car Seat Safety Tips

Safe in the Seat shared five fast tips for keeping children safe in car seats:

• Puffy coats. Remove puffy winter coats before buckling your child in their car seat.
• Proper installation. Make sure your newborn’s seat is properly reclined and tightly harnessed because this keeps your baby safe and breathing easily in case of a crash.
• Harness straps. Rear-facing children should have their harness straps at or just below the shoulders. Forward-facing harness straps should be at or just above the shoulders. 
• Chest clip. The chest clip should be at armpit level, never at the stomach. 
• Seat position. You should keep the car seat rear-facing until your child reaches the height, weight or head height limit of their car seat (whichever comes first). 

Read: Car Seats and Winter Coats Don’t Mix: How to Keep Your Kids Safe and Cozy

Car seat makers follow federal rules for manufacturing child car seats, which are also deeply researched and crash tested. All this makes them experts on how the seats should be used. This information, from weights, height, proper position, installation instructions and more are in the owner’s manual, as well as in manufacturer videos online.

But do buyers read and properly follow this guidance? Surveys have found, many do not.

Read: Best Travel Car Seats, From All-in-Ones to Booster Seats for Big Kids

To understand just how many parents really follow proper car seat safety rules, Rivian commissioned a Harris Poll survey of 2,000 adults to learn more about what they know of child passenger safety. To no surprise, a majority of parents with kids under the age of 12 said safety was one of the most important attributes they considered when they were buying or leasing a vehicle (58%). 

Yet the survey also showed that there’s a lot of room for improvement when it comes to implementing safety measures that could potentially save a child’s life. For example:

• 16% of parents admitted that they don’t always use a car seat when they’re transporting their youngest children in the car. (21% of Gen Z and younger Millennials admitted to doing this.)
• Less than half (49%) of parents knew that puffy winter coats should be taken off before buckling a child into a car seat. 
• 40% of parents didn’t know that newborn car seats need to be properly reclined to keep the baby’s airways clear. (That’s why some car seats come with that little bubble indicator on the side.)
• Less than half of parents (46%) knew that it’s not advisable to use aftermarket products (like seat covers, attachable toys and strap padding) that didn’t come with their specific car seat model. 
• More than a third (38%) said they didn’t know a rear-facing child’s head should be one inch below the top of the car seat shell or headrest.
• More than a third (36%) didn’t realize the car seat chest clip should be worn across the chest and never across the stomach.
• Just 34% of parents knew that children should stay rear-facing until they reach the age, weight or height limit of their car seat.

You’ve no doubt heard about the environmental benefits that come from purchasing an EV and reducing carbon emissions. But did you know that they’re also among the safest vehicles on the market?

Rivian, in particular, boasts some bragging rights in this category. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety named the Rivian R1S a Top Safety Pick, and it’s the only large electric American SUV to date to achieve that distinction.

If you’re wondering what makes the R1S so safe — and why parents love it — here are some of its key features:

• Accident protection. You never want it to happen, but just in case it does, Rivian says their vehicles’ crash structure provides best-in-class protection in an accident.
• Over-the-air software updates. Constant updates mean constant enhancements for safety-focused features. Things just keep getting better with time!
• Drive assistance features. These assist you with steering, braking, speed control, reversing, parking and towing, thereby increasing your confidence on the road. And the good thing is, these are standard on most cars, including Rivian’s.
• Other safety features. Of course, you’ll also get standard driver-assistance favorites, such as blind-spot monitoring and a surround-view camera system, further reducing your risk of a crash or injury. 
• Room for five car seats. The seven-passenger R1S was made for large families and can fit up to five car seats at a time (three across the second row). 
• Electric range. The second generation R1S can go up to 420 miles on a charge. No range anxiety here!

Probably the best advice, though, is “No matter what vehicle you drive,” Pratt said, “caregivers should make sure to always use a stage-appropriate car seat or booster for children and closely follow the manual’s installation and harnessing rules to keep their child safe in the seat.”

Which makes September 21st, National Seat Check Saturday, a must-attend for parents. You can make sure that your child car seats are installed correctly, find out if it’s time to turn a car seat around or best of all, upgrade to a booster car seat. Certified child passenger safety technicians will also double check that your child’s seat size and position fits the recommendations for their age, weight and height. Spread awareness to family and friends about this day by using the hashtag #SeatCheckSaturday on social media. 

When it comes to your child’s safety, taking every possible precaution is worth it.