From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to cover? Let us know!
The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia has long hosted several events each month for parents to ensure their children’s car seats are installed correctly. Usually, these events are in person, but they experimented with virtual options during the pandemic lockdown in 2020. Recently, they published research showing that the virtual option was effective, and have continued to offer it.
More than 70% of child car seats are not installed correctly, according to data from the National Digital Car Seat Check Form database in 2023. The data shows that common mistakes include: installing the seat too loosely, and making the harness that holds a child to the seat too loose. Nathan Branosky, a public information officer and certified car seat technician with the Pennsylvania State Police for more than 20 years, said he also frequently sees parents position the child car seat at the wrong angle and use the wrong belt path to secure the car seat.
“Incorrectly installed car seats can be serious,” he said. “Seat belt ejections, spinal cord injuries, head injuries can all result from an improperly installed car seat.”
He also warns parents to make sure that accessories like mirrors are correctly installed, and not to have any loose items such as groceries or pens that can fly around if the car hits something.
Parents can make appointments with the Pennsylvania State Police to get their car seats checked, and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia also organizes similar events several times a month in the region. The hospital says those events are very popular and often all appointments are booked up.