The Insurance Department says that 80% of child safety seats are incorrectly installed. Now the N.C.Highway Patrol wants to improve your child's chances of surviving a car crash.
Like any caring mother, Lisa Moss wants her little girl to be protected.That's why she invested in a car seat for Tabitha. But like most safetyseats being driven around the country, Moss's seat isn't installedcorrectly.
Most car seats are missing a bracket that would keep the seatbelt from coming loose. One missing bracketmay sound minor, but safety inspectors say that even the smallest flaw can render a car seat completelyuseless. So, the Highway Patrol is training every trooper in every county to look for car seat problems.
The fact is, most of us try to put the seats in the right way, but weleave out some important details. The main reason probably won't surpriseyou. Most of us feel like we're in a rush from the time we get up untilthe time we go to bed at night. Not enough time is spent reading manualsto do the job right.
Trooper D.P. Tafoya says that car-seat safety starts by reading the owner's manual.
Whatever the reason, car seats can't work if they're not installedcorrectly. Hundreds of newly trained troopers will make it a point to seethat from now on, they are.
If you have some questions about your own car seat, you can find some answers at your local healthdepartment. Most departments hold periodic child seat classes.
andKerrieHudzinski
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