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Trenton
- New Jersey will kick-off National Child
Passenger Safety Week, September 12 - 18,
with a series of car seat inspections designed
to help parents and caregivers learn how to
properly transport children in their vehicles.
Known
throughout the United States as “Seat
Check Saturday,” certified safety technicians
will be available at locations throughout
the state on September 12 to highlight year-round
child safety seat programs. Provided free
of charge to parents and caregivers, seat
checks offer critical instruction in the proper
use of child restraints in motor vehicles.
According to the National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration (NHTSA), nearly three
out of four child safety seats are improperly
installed in vehicles.
“It’s
the responsibility of every parent and caregiver
in New Jersey to ensure that their children
are properly restrained,” Division of
Highway Traffic Safety Director Pam Fischer
said. “When it comes to the safety of
young people, there’s simply no room
for mistakes. Taking the time to learn how
to properly protect our children in a vehicle
can be a life-saving lesson.”
While
the highest level of child restraint use both
nationally and in New Jersey is for infants
under one year of age, parents are encouraged
to take advantage of the information available
from state agencies, local police departments
and traffic safety organizations as early
as possible, to ensure they’re fully
prepared when their new baby arrives.
Nationally,
in 2007, an estimated 358 children under the
age of five were saved by child restraints.
If all children under the age of five were
restrained, an additional 71 children would
have been saved across the nation. In New
Jersey alone in 2008, five children under
the age of five were saved by the use of child
restraints.
Fischer,
a NHTSA certified child passenger safety technician,
noted that parents and caregivers are the
best role models for their children and can
support the benefits of seat belt use by buckling
up, every ride.
“We
know that passengers and drivers who buckle-up
are 75 percent less likely to have life-threatening
injuries if they’re involved in a crash,”
Fischer said. “This message is reinforced
in young children when they see their parents
and family members buckling up, no matter
where they’re riding in a vehicle.”
Currently,
New Jersey’s primary seat belt law applies
to the driver, all front seat passengers and
passengers under the age of 18 regardless
of seating position. In addition, when the
driver holds a Graduated Driver License all
passengers, regardless of age and seating
position, must buckle-up. Legislation that
would require belt use in all seating positions
regardless of age passed the Assembly (A-870)
in February 2008, but has not yet been acted
upon by the Senate (S-18).
A
new web site, www.njbackseatbullets.com,
was developed by the New Jersey Child Passenger
Safety Coalition to further illustrate the
dangers of riding unbuckled in the back seat.
The site contains information on the lifesaving
importance of always buckling up. The site
also includes videos that reinforce the potentially
deadly consequences unbelted backseat passengers
face in the event of a crash.
To
maximize child passenger safety, parents and
caregivers should adhere to the following
guidelines for determining which restraint
system is best suited to protect children
based on age and size:
- For
the best possible protection, keep infants
in the back seat, in rear-facing child safety
seats, up to the maximum height or weight
limit of that particular seat. At a minimum,
infants should ride rear-facing until at
least age 1 and 20 pounds.
-
When children outgrow their rear-facing
seats (at least age 1 and 20 pounds), they
should ride in forward-facing child safety
seats, in the back seat, until they reach
the upper weight or height limit of the
particular seat (usually around age 4 and
40 pounds).
- Once
children outgrow their forward-facing seats
(usually around age 4 and 40 pounds), they
should ride in booster seats, in the back
seat, until the vehicle seat belts fit properly.
Seat belts fit properly when the lap belt
lays across the upper thighs and the shoulder
belt fits across the chest (usually when
the child is at least 4’ 9”
tall).
- When
children outgrow their booster seats, they
should be restrained in seat belts in the
back seat (until at least 13 years of age).
Additional
information on child passenger safety, including
Seat Check Saturday inspection sites and a
list of permanent fitting stations that parents
and caregivers can visit throughout the year
for assistance with their child seats, is
available on the Division’s website,
at www.nj.gov/oag/hts/CPS-week_resources.html.
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