There are deaths reported every year where
children have been ejected from their car seats because they were
wearing their bulky winter coat.
How does this accident happen? Experts say when the coat compresses, it leaves too much room between a child's body and the straps in their seat.
Janet Brooks, child advocacy manager at Primary Children’s Hospital, said there’s an easy way to check if a child’s coat is too big to wear under their harness.
-place them in the car seat with their winter coat on and tighten the harness the best you can
-undo the harness and take your child out and leave the harness exactly as it was
-take their coat off and place them back in the car seat and fasten the harness to see how loose the harness really is
Below are a few suggestions on how to keep children safe and warm in their car seat:
-Put their coats on backward
-Cover the child with a blanket once they are strapped in their seat
-Put a lightweight sweatshirt on them
Let's have a happy and safe holiday season!
