Car Safety Tips with Children
Car Safety Tips with Children
Making sure that your children are safe during the car ride must be imperative for a parent. It all comes down to knowing what kind of dangers and risks are present and how to manage them. Luckily, most parents are well aware of what car safety for children involves, but it’s always prudent to go over the facts.
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Appropriate safety restraint
There are different types of car seats and consequently various ways to secure your child in the car. When you buy a car seat, it’s important to pay attention to whether the child can fit in it which means age, weight, and height should be taken into account. Various researches show that rear-facing seats are safer and children should ride this way as long as possible.
Children with up to 40 pounds in weight and in some cases, even more, can ride in the rear-facing car seats. Height must leave at least 1-inch space from the top of the child’s head and top of the car seat for the optimum safety. Other than that, make sure that children seating on the back use the seatbelt and in an appropriate way.
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Pay attention to the blind zone
Although cars have three mirrors which show what is happening behind the vehicle, there is also a blind zone. This is a spot which driver can’t see behind the vehicle and because of this, an accident might happen. The blind zone depends on the driver’s height and it can be from 9 to 49 feet which are a significant amount of area that the driver can’t see.
Consequently, a lot of backover accidents happen when children are in this area and the driver can’t see them in the rearview mirror. So, before going in reverse, look carefully if there are any children near or behind the car or that they are in your line of sight. Modern cars have a sensor device called blind spot monitor so if you plan to buy a new vehicle, make sure that it has this piece of equipment.
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Mind the power windows
Power windows are responsible for a considerable number of injuries and even deaths in children every year. The mechanism uses enough force to cause trauma to the child, like fractures and strangulation. Although this is something addressed in the new cars by installing the safer switch mechanism, parents should still pay attention to this and even block the controls with duct tape.
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No distractions
If you ask the best accident lawyer what is the most common cause of all car accidents, they will most likely say ‘distractions.’ When distracted, drivers can cause accidents which can have serious consequences for all involved. If children are yelling and fighting, this can distract the driver and in those cases, it’s best to stop the car and calm down the situation.
Children tend to make noise, ask questions and argue between themselves, so you will need to handle the situation with patience and calmly. It’s best to set the rules for car rides and find the most appropriate way to enforce them, like rewarding the good behavior. The driver is also to respect appropriate behavior like no using a phone rule and staying concentrated on the traffic.
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Don’t leave a child alone in the car
Unfortunately, come summer, you can hear in the news that a child was left in a locked car on a hot day with near-fatal or fatal consequences. When the temperatures are high outside, it’s the matter of minutes before the inside of the car isn’t heated to dangerous levels. Therefore, don’t leave your children in a car unattended even for a minute to avoid this from happening.
Also, leaving the car operating with air-conditioning on is also dangerous, as well as rolling the windows down. Someone might kidnap the child or steal the care and leave the child alone outside on a hot day. Also, a child might sneak out through the open window and injure themselves or wander off into the traffic.
Lastly
Car safety with children is a serious and important issue that parents must confront and ensure its implementation in order to prevent injuries and fatal outcomes. While some accidents happen regardless of the driver, ensuring the child’s safety will prevent many.
