Keeping your child safer in your car

An Evenflo Co. car seat. (David Kohl/Associated Press)

Nothing kills more Canadian children and teens than traffic accidents, according to the Canadian Hospitals Injury Reporting and Prevention Program. According to Transport Canada, 10,000 children under the age of 12 are injured in traffic accidents every year.

A child who wasn't restrained and was in a car that crashed while travelling at 50 kilometres per hour would fare as badly as a child dropped from a third-storey window. Holding your child in your lap is no protection either. In a crash at just 40 km/h, it takes only one-tenth of a second for you and the baby to hit the dashboard.

Crash tests have demonstrated that it's impossible to hang on to a crash-test dummy baby no matter how tightly you're holding it — even if you're wearing a lap/shoulder belt.

Putting that kid in a car seat reduces the chances of injury or death by as much as 75 per cent — as long as that car seat is installed correctly.

Most car seats not installed properly

Various surveys have found that as many as 90 per cent of child safety seats are installed incorrectly.

Two years ago, the British Columbia Automobile Association randomly checked the installations of 1,000 child car seats. Only seven per cent were installed correctly.

Among the most common errors the survey uncovered:

• Child seat not tightly secured in the vehicle (47 per cent).
• Child seat not securely fastened in the seat (28 per cent).
• Tethers not used correctly, or used at all (17 per cent).
• Shoulder harness placed in the incorrect slot of the child seat (12 per cent).
• Child in the incorrect seat for his/her weight, height and age (four per cent).

There are three main types of seats used to secure young children in cars. They are:

• Infant seats.
• Convertible seats.
• Booster seats.

Infant seats

These seats are designed for infants under a year old. Their neck muscles are not strong enough to resist much force. These are rear-facing seats, secured by the car's seat belts as well as a metal latch that is secured to the car. The seat is designed to protect an infant from birth to about nine kilograms.

Convertible seats

Convertible seats can face either backward or forward. They often have five-point harnesses. They need to be turned backward until the child can hold his or her head up and the neck and spine are strong (usually at around 12 months). This style of seat can be used until the child is about 18 kilograms or around 4½ years old.

Booster seats

Until recently, most parents would move their kids straight into a seatbelt after they outgrew their car seat. That can be a big mistake.

A child car seat is designed to protect someone who weighs up to 18 kilograms (40 pounds). Seat belts are put together with a 75-kilogram (165 pound) man in mind.

With kids, the lap belt tends to ride up on the abdomen and the shoulder belt often cuts across the face or neck. Children can be injured by seat belts that do not fit them correctly as well as by belts that are not worn correctly.

Booster seats were designed to correct this problem for most children between the ages of four and eight (or weighing up to 36 kilograms or 80 pounds). They raise children to a height at which lap and shoulder belts can be worn correctly.

The booster seat is held in place by the seatbelt. It is not tethered to the car like a child car seat.

Children using seat belts instead of booster seats are 3.5 times more likely to suffer significant injury, and four times more likely to suffer head injury.

Provinces that require booster seats

Standards for booster seats and child car seats are regulated by the federal government. But it's up to the provinces to set the rules for using seat belts and child car seats. Most provinces currently have laws making car seats mandatory only when parents are driving their own children in the family's car, van or truck.

In September 2005, Ontario became the first province to require the use of booster seats. The legislation:

• Makes booster seats mandatory for pre-school and primary grade-age children too big for a child car seat, but too small to properly use a seat belt.
• Gives demerit points to drivers who do not use the correct infant and toddler car seats or who use them incorrectly.
• Requires more drivers, such as grandparents and babysitters, to use child car seats when transporting children. Exemptions would include taxis, emergency services vehicles and out-of-province vehicles.

Since then, Quebec and Nova Scotia have passed similar legislation. New Brunswick is also looking at making booster seats mandatory.

Crash test worries

In its February 2007 issue, Consumer Reports magazine reported on crash tests it performed to test the safety of car seats. The results were not encouraging.

Most of the infant car seats tested by Consumer Reports "failed disastrously" in crashes at speeds reported as low as 56 km/h. The seats came off their bases or twisted in place, the report said. In one case, a test dummy was hurled more than nine metres.

Of the 12 car seats tested, Consumer Reports said it could recommend only two, and it urged a U.S. federal recall of the poorest performing seat, the Evenflo Discovery, which is not sold in Canada.

All the car seats passed U.S. standards - but Consumer Reports called for the standards to be raised.

To be sold in Canada and the United States, an infant seat must perform adequately in a 48 km/h frontal crash, and Consumer Reports found that all but the Discovery did so. But it noted that the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) conducts its crash tests for new cars at higher speeds - 56 km/h for frontal crashes and 61 km/h for side crashes - so the magazine tested the seats at those speeds.

But just two weeks after the story appeared, the magazine backtracked and said that the tests were actually carried out at higher speeds than it had originally claimed. Instead of about 60 km/h, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said the tests were actually carried out under conditions that would represent being struck at more than 110 km/h.

The magazine said it would it would retest the seats and publish a new article.

Seats bought in U.S. may not be approved in Canada

Transport Canada says its tests of infant car seats require use of the LATCH system as well as seatbelts, unlike U.S. tests.

To be approved for sale in Canada, infant car seats must pass Canadian standards — so if you come across a good deal on a car seat while travelling through the United States, you might want to doublecheck that it is approved for sale in Canada.

Your insurance company will likely not cover a claim involving a car seat not approved for sale here.