Transport Your Children Safely
When correctly used and installed, car seats can reduce children's fatalities by about 90%, with injuries reduced by 70%. A big problem is that many parents don't know the proper method of restraining their children. Fit for a Kid is a free program offered by Daimler-Chrysler dealers that allows customers to learn how to strap their children in safely, using their own vehicle and car seat.
Kids should ride in car seats on every trip -- even short neighborhood journeys. When a vehicle stops unexpectedly, its passengers are thrown towards the point of impact. An unrestrained child may be thrown into the dashboard, through the windshield, or completely out of the vehicle through a broken window or door. Holding them on a lap or in an adult's arms might seem like a good compromise -- but car seats are substantially safer: an adult's arms aren't strong enough to hold on to a child during a collision, and the weight of an adult can easily crush a small child or infant.
Because of their size, small children and infants can't benefit from most safety features found inside a modern vehicle. Unrestrained, they're much more likely to strike their heads on the inside of a vehicle than adults, who are protected by airbags and safety belts. Children need the protection they get from child car seats. Their soft bone structures, weaker muscles, heavy heads and smaller bodies expose them to greater risk of injury in collisions.
