Need a New Car? Buy a Safer One for Kids With Help From the Auto Club
24 July 2000
Need a New Car? Buy a Safer One for Kids With Help From the Auto Club
LOS ANGELES - Parents shopping for a car can make sure the vehicle is kid-safe with help from the Automobile Club of Southern California.Does the car have lap-and-shoulder belts in the back seat for each child you carry? Does its back seat design allow a child safety seat to be installed properly? Which new-car models have these and other child safety features?
Parents can get answers to many of these questions with "Buying a Safer Car for Child Passengers 2000," a guide available from the Automobile Club of Southern California. It provides a checklist of year 2000 vehicle models offering key child safety features.
"For parents, the top priority when buying a family car should be to ensure that all their children can fit safely in the car with the appropriate safety equipment for each passenger," said Arline Dillman, traffic safety manager for the Auto Club.
To do this, parents should make sure that each of their child passengers under age 12 can sit in the back seat with the appropriate safety restraint:
-- Children under age 4 and/or 40 pounds must ride in a child safety seat.
-- Children between ages 4 and 8 weighing less than 80 pounds should ride in a booster seat, which allows a lap-and-shoulder belt to fit properly.
-- Children between ages 8 and 12 should always use a shoulder-and-lap safety belt.
"Even if a vehicle appears to have the correct number of seats with safety belts, parents should make sure that any needed child safety seats will fit properly in the vehicle and still leave enough room in the back seat for older children," Dillman said.
Deep bucket or bench-type designs in the back seat may prevent a child safety seat from fitting securely, say passenger safety experts.
If a child under age 12 must ride in the front seat because there is no back seat in the vehicle, parents should make sure their passenger seat air bag has an on/off switch and should disable the air bag each time the child rides in the front seat. Air bags can cause serious or even fatal injuries to children because they are designed to protect heavier and taller adults.
The guide for which 2000 models offer the following child safety features as either standard or optional equipment:
| -- | On/off airbag switches |
| -- | Adjustable shoulder belts to better fit children |
| -- | A lap and shoulder belt in the center passenger seat |
| -- | Built-in child safety seats |
| -- | Top tether anchors to more securely hold a child safety seat in |
In addition to the safety equipment checklist for year 2000 models, the guide also discusses other areas of concern for child vehicle safety, such as trunk entrapment, vehicle cargo areas and the dangers of leaving children unattended in vehicles.
"Buying A Safer Car for Child Passengers," jointly published by AAA and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, is available free to Auto Club members at any of the 68 Auto Club offices. Anyone can get a free copy of the guide via the Internet from www.nhtsa.dot.gov or by calling the NHTSA Auto Safety Hotline, 1-888-DASH-2-DOT, or writing to NHTSA, 400 Seventh St. SW, NTS-21, Washington, DC, 20590.
Also available from the Auto Club and NHTSA is "Buying a Safer Car 2000," which details general safety features and crash test information for all 2000 model cars.
The Automobile Club of Southern California, the largest affiliate of the AAA, has been serving members since 1900. Today, the Auto Club's members benefit by roadside assistance, insurance products and services, travel agency, financial products, automotive pricing, buying and financing programs, automotive testing and analysis, trip planning services, highway and transportation safety programs and legislative advocacy.
