LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Parents throughout Tippecanoe County got a few tips on how to keep their children safe in the event of a crash. State Farm Insurance had dozens of car seat technicians looking at how area parents are traveling with their children. Lafayette resident Radawna Louden said she knows the importance of strapping a child in a seat for a safe trip from experience.
“Eight years ago I flipped my car. I fractured my tailbone and my pelvis. Luckily, my son was in his car seat the right way, the proper way, and only got bruises from his car strap,” said Louden.
Parents waited patiently at Lafayette Fire Station Five to make sure their child’s ride is a safe one. Jodi Tanksley, of Dayton, waited close to an hour for State Farm to inspect four of her car seats. But she said knowing her little ones are not in any danger is what’s important.
“If we’re ever in a wreck I know that my children aren’t going to go flying out the window,” Tanksley said.
State Farm agent Laura Fitzgerald said parents need to make sure their child’s safety seat gets placed properly.
“These [car seats] are made to withstand a crash so you need to make sure that when you’re putting them in, you’re using your weight and making sure that it’s very tightly and snugly,” said Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald warns parents not to make some common car seat mistakes.
“Parents are afraid so they move them forward facing a little too soon because their legs are long and they hit the seat. That’s ok. They’ve never died from having their seat hit against the back seat, but they have died from being face forward too soon. Parents are afraid to make the harnesses too tight. Children kind of get a little uncomfortable if it’s too snug, but they need to be snug,” Fitzgerald said.
Fitzgerald also said children should never be in the front seat of the car and should face the car’s rear window at all times.
“Their neck muscles aren’t as strong, neither is their cervical spinal cord. With crash dynamics, if you’re facing forward, you’re putting a lot of pressure on that little neck and the shoulder and the spinal cord,” Fitzgerald said.
“Somebody’s got to look out for them and if the parents don’t. I think that’s where it’s got to start is the parents keeping them safe,” said Christina Hancock, a Rossville resident.
State law requires children to ride in a car seat from birth to eight years of age. But an agent from State Farm Insurance said height and weight should be considered first, which would confine a child to a car seat until 10-years-old.
The agent said the maximum weight for babies in an infant car seat is between 20 and 22 pounds.
Toddler car seats hold kids between 22 and 40 pounds.
Booster seats hold children as small as 30 pounds and a large as 100 pounds.
State Farm advises using an adult seatbelt only when the child’s knees bend over the edge of the seat.
“Report by Renetta DuBose, WLFI.”
