September 12-18, 2009 marks the observance of Child Passenger Safety Week

According to United States Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, a new research conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) showed that despite the high child safety seat use – majority of these children are still not properly secured.

A staggering figure from the study shows that while 99 percent of children ages 0-12 months old were secured in child safety seats as were 92 percent of children ages 1-3 years old and 89 percent of 4-7 years-old, three out of every four seats are used incorrectly.

Hence, regardless of the use of restraints, these children will still not be properly restrained and protected and would likely get seriously injured in case of a car accident.

In fact, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 72% of nearly 3,500 observed car and booster seats were misused in a way that could be expected to increase a child’s risk of injury during a crash.

According to the NHTSA, the errors in the use of child restraints included the wrong way of securing the child in the child seat as well as the errors in attaching the child seat to the car. Examples would include using the wrong child restraint based on age and weight and the incorrect installation of restraint to the vehicle seat.

The CDC pegs that in every day, children aged 14 years old and younger had an average of 4 deaths and 504 injuries in 2005. 1,335 children died and approximately 184,000 were injured.

While parents may be compliant with the use of child safety seats, they must also be correct in the use of it. Following the law would be futile, if they were negligent in securing the safety and protection of their children.

During the Child Passenger Safety Week, there will be thousands of free safety seat inspection stations set up across the country to provide assistance to the majority of parents in the proper installation of child safety seats.