As a parent, it is your duty to do whatever you can in order to secure the safety of your offspring. One of the most challenging safety endeavors concerns child safety in a motor vehicle. No matter if you drive your kids to school every day or enjoy occasional family road trips, it is of the utmost importance to keep your child safe during the ride. To help you ensure the highest level of safety for your children, here are a few simple tips that will help you keep your kids safe in a car.
Buckle up Your Kids
Never forget that you have both legal obligation to fasten your seatbelt but also to make sure each passenger has secured their own restraint. For babies and very young children, you need to provide baby seats, while older kids should sit in the back seat, with their seatbelts fastened. It’s important to keep the children under the age of 13 away from the front seat because most front airbags are not designed for children and could easily harm your kid.
For children with additional needs, restraints could present a challenge, so make sure you consult a specialist that could help you obtain specialized restrains, modifications, or accessories.
Never Leave Your Kids inside a Car Alone
According to statistics, one of the most common reasons for non-traffic car-related injuries and fatalities is parents leaving their kids alone inside a car. Carbon Monoxide poisoning, children falling from the car, a kid finding a gun in a glove compartment, and dehydration are just some of the reasons why you should always have an adult watching over your kid while you’re away, even for a very short period of time.
Child Locks and Windows
These features come with most of the modern-day cars, however, it’s not uncommon to see parents disabling child lock function. If you’re buying a used car, make sure to check if all of the child safety mechanisms are working properly. Kids can easily get distracted by almost anything and the child lock mechanism prevents them from opening the door while the car is moving.
Keep the Car Clean
This one should go without saying, but keeping your car clean includes storing any loose objects in your glove compartment or trunk. Never keep any tools or objects that might move in case of a sudden stop or crash. When you hit the brakes suddenly to prevent an accident, any loose items that might be close to your kids could move and injure your kid. A friend of mine who is an editor at AssignmentGeek writing service once wrote: “Kids are safest in a car when there’s nothing around them that’s not a part of factory equipment”.
Check Your Baby Seat Safety
Over the years there have been dozens of cases of millions of baby seats recalled due to some sort of manufacturing problem. These issues could lead to injury so always make sure to check the model you wish to buy and see if it’s safe for use. Furthermore, avoid buying used baby seats, especially from people you don’t know. Used baby seats could have broken parts or some other hidden problem that might jeopardize the safety of your little travel companion.
Never Text and Drive
On a busy day, we get numerous texts, emails, announcements, and all other sorts of notifications which require our attention. However, prioritizing is essential when you drive a car, especially with children inside. According to statistics, 26 percent of car accidents in the US happen because a driver was texting. Additionally, more than 1000 people get injured on a daily base due to mobile phone use.
Even if you feel confident enough to know the route, have good reflexes, or being able to multitask, texting reduces your ability to focus, your hands are off the wheel, and your eyes are off the road.
Every year we hear reports of children suffering injuries and fatalities that are somehow related to car safety issues. It only takes one loose harness, a single unprotected wire, or a moment of neglect to suffer a tragedy. Prevention is the best way to keep your children safe. Only by doing all we can in order to prevent bad things from happening, we can rest assured that our children are as safe as they could be.
Alexandra Reay is an editor and professional writer at AssignmentGeek. She is fond of horse-riding, reading and rock music. Alexandra keeps her spirit in writing fluent articles as well. Meet her at Twitter.
