Article by Levi Quinn
Seatbelt use has been a subject of much debate since states began creating laws requiring residents to use seatbelts. Many people don’t like to use seatbelts and would prefer not to put their children in safety restraints either.
The truth is that a person in a crash is much more likely to die if thrown from the car, babies and young children especially. Many people have accepted the wisdom of using car seats for their young ones, but aren’t quite sure about the proper way to do it.
It would probably be the best of all situations not to put a baby into a car at all, since their bodies are so fragile and an automobile accident can be so violent, even at low speeds of travel. But life goes on as usual, even if one has a baby, and so parents must do the next best thing, restraining their infants and young children in the car as well as possible.
That means rear-facing car seats. The reason for rear-facing car seats for children is that children are at much more risk of spinal cord injury if they were riding in a front-facing car seat and experiencing a frontal crash.
How long should you use a rear-facing car seat? When does it become safe for the child to ride facing forward in the car? The truth is that riding face forward never becomes safer than riding face backward, and that is true even for adults. If an adult were riding in a rear-facing car seat during a frontal crash, they would be much better off. Facing backwards in a car is wildly impractical, and the next best thing is to turn children around when they outgrow their car seats, which is when the child is around 30 to 35 pounds of weight, probably be well into their second year.
Of course, some people worry about the baby’s legs being in danger because legs are bent at the knee in this position or because the baby can touch the rear of the front seat. This does not constitute a danger. Parents may also worry because the rear-facing position is best in the event of a frontal collision, but not in the event of a rear collision.
The truth is that injury and death in a moving vehicle is not completely preventable. Car seats are developed according to the statistics of car crashes and, according to www.car-safety.org, only about 4 percent of crashes are rear-impact collisions. Front-impact collisions and frontal-offset crashes account for about 72 percent, with side impact collisions accounting for about 24 percent of crashes. In addition, rear-end collisions also tend to happen at lower speeds.
If you are wondering in the slightest whether it would be safer for you or your child to be allowed to move freely without restraints in a vehicle and be thrown from the car during a crash, don’t wonder. It is terribly dangerous not to wear restraints of any kind and risk being thrown from a vehicle in a car crash.
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