While public and private efforts tend to focus on those who aren't buckled up at all, more needs to be done to ensure that kids who are strapped in child seats are protected from harm. Parents need to understand that using a child seat correctly can be complicated and time-consuming. Child seat manufacturers ought to provide video instructions of how to install and use their product in addition to the written directions that many parents complain they can't follow. More hospitals ought to have trained staff who can demonstrate correct child seat usage before parents take their babies home for the first time. Efforts to reach parents with additional training should be intensified at Lamaze classes, day care centers, pediatricians' offices, child welfare programs and driver's education courses.
Manufacturers send other mixed messages to users.
For example, while most seats are fine in any position, a couple advise against use in front of a fold-down arm rest or after a baby's feet reach the vehicle seat. While retainer clips are considered crucial in most harness systems, one seat doesn't incorporate them at all. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is slow to correct problems in the field. It wasn't until two months ago that the agency stopped requiring child seat makers to include a label illustrating a child seat installed in the front passenger seat even though the agency for years has been dictating that kids ride in the back seat, particularly if a car has air bags. Since the agency is supposed to test every child seat for compliance anyway, it should consider testing seats before they are sold to consumers rather than afterward, as they do in Europe.