Make Your Family Car A Safe Haven For You And You Loved Ones
Having a car is one of the most important conveniences you can give to your family. If you have young kids, then you would understand what this means. When you have your own vehicle, you do not need to worry about how you would get you family to places, with all the accoutrements you and your family require. It is very inconvenient to travel through public transport with a baby and a toddler with you. You would need to lug around strollers and huge diaper bags too.
Yet, can you honestly say that you are traveling safely with your family in tow? There have been many instances of families getting into accidents and getting injured because they did not follow the safety precautions advised while traveling inside a car.
For one, most parents do not wear a seat belt, or if they do, the safety seatbelts are not adjusted to their bodies accordingly. A safety seatbelt should be placed right across the lap and the shoulder strap located in mid shoulder for it to be effective in preventing serious injury in case of collisions.
Speaking of safety seatbelts, most parents prefer that older children be strapped in regular seatbelts instead of buying booster seats. Additionally, children who are 6 to 8 years old sometimes find it embarrassing to be out on a booster seat, they think it is only for “babies.” However, safety seatbelts cannot be adjusted to the proper measurements of a child under the age of 8 or 9 years. Mostly, seatbelts go across the hips or the stomach of a child and this is not going to prevent them from getting injured in an accident.
Another common mistake is getting an ill-fitting booster seat. Although most car experts say that having an ill-fitting booster is better than not having one at all, if you want to really secure your child, you would not buy a booster seat that has not been properly fitted inside your vehicle. A booster should be able to create enough height for the child to enable the proper harnessing of the safety seatbelts in the vehicle,
Strapping infant seats and carriers properly is also an easily neglected task. Sometimes, parents who are in a hurry would not be able to strap in the seats carefully and fail to check if the straps have locked securely. Moreover, some fussy babies would want to be carried instead of being placed in an infant seat and the crying and whining forces the parents to just give in. This is an unsafe practice and should not be encouraged at all.
One more unsafe practice with kids is allowing them to sit on the front passenger seat. The safest place for a child and in fact for everyone who is not driving is the back seat, right behind the driver. As parents, you should always keep your child in that position instead of giving in to his demands of sitting up front.
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