Narrator: In the event of a crash, a child who was properly restrained in a car seat will be held in place and come to a more gradual stop with the vehicle, which dramatically reduces the risk of serious injury. If you're in a crash with a child who was not properly restrained, the child will continue to move at the same speed as the vehicle, until hitting something which slows them down.

If the child is not properly restrained, death or serious injury could occur. Safety experts recommend children stay rear facing until they reach the maximum height or weight allowed by the car seat. Most children won't reach those limits until they are two years old or more. Children who are turned forward facing too soon are more likely to be injured in a crash.

In some states, the law requires that children ride rear-facing until at least age two. Always check your car seat manual for maximum weight and height guidelines and refer to the Governor's Highway Safety Association for updated child passenger safety laws in your state. When your child is ready to ride facing the front of the car, you have several options. When front-facing, these seats can be used up until your child reaches the maximum weight or height of the car seat.

Always look at the labels on your car seat to find the maximum weight and height allowed. Some seats convert to a belt positioning booster seat when the maximum height or weight limits are reached for the internal harness. The harness is removed when your child is older and ready to use a booster seat with the vehicle's lap and shoulder belt.

We encourage parents to use a car seat with a full five point harness as long as possible. You should always check your vehicle owner's manual and your safety seat instructions for specific information on correctly installing your car seat. But here are some general rules to follow. When turning a safety seat from rear to forward-facing, most harnesses must be adjusted.

The best time to change the hardness settings is before you install the child seat in your car. When forward-facing, the straps should always be at or above your child's shoulders. Let's move on to installing the car seat. You will need your vehicle owner's manual and car seat manual. To strap the seat in, you can use the vehicle seat belt or the LATCH system, otherwise known as lower anchors and tethers for children. Both methods are safe. Not every vehicle seating position has LATCH. Check your vehicle owner's manual for more information. First, we're going to show you how to install the car seat using a seat belt. First, check your car seat manual and look for the label on the side of the car seat to be sure you're using the correct belt path for a forward facing position.

Then pull the seat belt out and carefully thread it through the forward facing belt path of your car seat. Buckle the seat belt and make sure it doesn't have any twists. Check your vehicle owner's manual to learn how to lock your seat belt. For the seat belt in this car, slowly pull the belt all the way out of the retractor.

This switches the seat belt to a locked mode. The seat belt in your vehicle might be different. Forward facing seats have the added security of a tether. A tether attaches the top of the car seat to a special tether anchor in your vehicle. It helps stabilize the car seat and keeps your child's head from moving too far forward in a crash. To ensure a tight fit, press down on the car seat and pull to tighten the seat belt. Feed the excess seat belt back into the retractor. The seat belt will stay locked until it is unbuckled. Whenever possible, the tethers should be used with a forward facing car seat. To test the fit, hold the car seat at the belt path and pull it from side to side, like this.

The car seat shouldn't move more than one inch in any direction. If it does, press down again on the car seat and pull the seat belt tight. Make sure to recheck the movement of the car seat until it moves no more than one inch. A loosely installed seat is one of the most common mistakes parents make. If you choose LATCH, check your vehicle owner's manual to find the LATCH seating positions.

In some cars, there won't be lower anchors for the center seat. It's okay to install the car seat in one of the side seats, if that's where you get the tightest fit. Vehicle and car seat manufacturers set weight limits on LATCH. Refer to both of these manuals for these limits. You may also find the LATCH weight limit on the label on the side of the car seat.

If there is no information in your manuals, you must assume the total weight of your child and child safety seat combined, can't exceed 65 pounds. If this weight limit is exceeded, use your vehicle seat belt to install your child's forward facing car seat. Begin by finding your LATCH attachments. For lower anchors, most vehicles have a small plastic button or fabric tag to help. The lower anchors are directly below the button or tag. Your tether anchor location may be identified with a symbol. Attach each connector onto its own lower anchor and connect the tether strap. Tighten and adjust the straps according to the car seat instruction manual. Now test the fit at the belt path.

The seat should not move more than one inch in any direction. Now it's safe to put your child in the car. Buckle the harness and the chest clip and position the clip at armpit level. This helps to keep the straps over the child's shoulders. Next, tighten the straps. If you can pinch a fold at the shoulders, the straps are too loose.

The harness should lie in a straight line with no slack. Make sure your child wears light clothing every time they are in the car seat. Puffy jackets aren't safe. They create too much space between the child and the harness. Make this a habit. Check the harness every time you strap your child in and adjust as needed.

Remember the safety experts at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia are dedicated to providing the most up-to-date information on child safety seats. Refer back to this and our other helpful videos on properly installing child safety seats before you hit the road. Safe travels.

Narrator: As your children grow from toddlers to school aged, the way you keep them safe in your car changes as well. Research shows securing your four to eight year old kids in belt positioning booster seats with both lap and shoulder seat belts, instead of seat belts alone, reduces the risk of serious injury by half. On young children the shoulder portion of a vehicle seat belt often crosses the neck rather than the shoulder, which is both uncomfortable and dangerous. To get comfortable, kids may put the shoulder belt behind their back or under their arm, which isn't keeping them safe. If the shoulder belt is not positioned properly and a crash occurs, your child's upper body and head can fly forward and hit the interior of the car causing neck, spine or brain injury. After your child completely outgrows the internal harness of their forward facing child safety seat, you can switch to a belt positioning booster seat. Consult your safety seat's owner's manual to find out when your child will reach the maximum weight or height of the car seat. A belt positioning booster seat like this one, raises your child, so the lap shoulder belt is properly positioned across the center of the chest and low on the hips, touching the thighs. In a crash, the belt will protect and restrain the child, as it was designed to do. Children should stay in a belt positioning booster seat until the vehicle lap and shoulder seat belt fits properly, typically when they have reached four foot nine inches tall and are between eight and 12 years of age. Boosters require a vehicle seat with both a lap and shoulder seat belt to work correctly.

Some booster seats have an internal harness, like this. These can be used with the harness until your child reaches the maximum weight limit, and then without the harness, as a belt positioning booster seat. Most booster seats have a maximum weight limit of 120 pounds. Check the manufacturer's instructions for the specific limits on your seat.

There are two types of booster seats -- a high-back booster and no back booster. A no back booster seat must be used in vehicles with head rests and your child must weigh at least 40 pounds to ride in this type of seat. All booster seats have specific age, height and weight requirements, so be sure to check your owners manual.

Belt positioning booster seats are easy to use. You are not installing them as you would a car seat. Booster seats are designed to raise a child up, so the seat belt fits correctly. Of course, you still need to read your vehicle owner's manual and booster seat instructions, but here's some general advice on using your booster.

The right place for a booster is anywhere in the rear seat that has a lap and shoulder belt. Have your child sit in the booster seat, hold the lap shoulder belt across their body, buckle it and make absolutely sure the shoulder strap stays in front of your child. Always use both the lap and shoulder belt.

Black belt guides are cut out grooves on the sides of the booster that help make sure the lap portion of the seat belt lies below the hips and touches the thighs. The shoulder belt should fit across the center of the shoulder and chest and should not cross or touch your child's neck. Use a shoulder belt positioner to guide you if needed or required.

The lap belt should fit snugly below the hip bones and against the upper thighs. It should never rest over a child's belly. Check your booster seat manual to see how to thread the shoulder belt through the positioners, but be careful not to pull the belt off the shoulder. Remember, the experts at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia are passionate about your family safety.

So buckle up. We wish you the safest of travels.

Narrator: Airbags have saved thousands of lives and prevented millions of injuries to adult passengers since carmakers started installing them in the 1980s, but for children under 13, frontal airbags can be fatal.

Front passenger airbags are in the dashboard and are designed to inflate and fill the space between the occupant and the dashboard to protect an adult in a crash. But for children under 13 years of age, sitting in front of an airbag doubles their risk of serious injury. Michael Nance is a doctor at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia who is an expert at treating injured children.

Michael Nance, MD: When a head-on crash occurs, seat belts and airbags are designed to work together to help passengers come to a gradual stop and to protect against injuries. But for a child in the same situation, the rapidly-inflating airbag can pull the head away from the body resulting in serious injury and sometimes death.

Narrator: A rear-facing child can also be killed from the force of an airbag hitting the back of their safety seat. Never place a rear-facing child in a seat with a frontal airbag. The best protection is to put your child in the right restraint for your child's age and size in the back seat of your vehicle each and every time you travel.

Airbags have been improved since the early 80s, but even now the risk of fatal or critical injury for children remains high. For that reason, children under 13 should never be seated in the front seat of a vehicle with a passenger airbag. There may be times when your child must ride in the front seat. You may be driving a pickup truck or sports car with no back seat, have more children in the car than can safely fit in the rear seat, or your child has a medical condition that may require your attention. If a child must ride in the front vehicle seat with a passenger airbag, move the vehicle seat as far back as possible and make sure he is correctly restrained.

Just remember children sitting in front of an airbag during a crash are at double the risk of serious injury. So before you decide to expose your child to that risk, you should consider all your options. Whenever possible, avoid transporting infants and children in vehicles without rear seats and make sure they are properly restrained. If your child requires constant attention, make sure there is an adult riding in the back seat. As the driver, you need to keep your eyes on the road.

Some vehicles now come with side airbags in addition to frontal ones that can protect passengers and drivers in side-impact crashes and rollovers. Side airbags and curtain airbags can come out of the side of the vehicle seat or from the roof above the window and can provide protection for both the front and back passengers. Some cars may have side airbags in the rear seat that come out of the seat back or door. Side airbags may be harmful to children who are leaning against the door. Side airbags are smaller than front airbags and inflate with much less force. But if the child's head is too close to the side airbag, your child could suffer a serious injury. Consult your owner's manual to learn if it is safe for children to sit next to a side airbag in your vehicle. In all vehicles with side airbags, teach your children not to lean against the door.

Pickup trucks and other vehicles without a back seat have on/off switches for the airbag. In addition, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration makes some exceptions for consumers with special circumstances who need to have airbag on/off switches installed in their cars. If a child must ride in this type of vehicle, be sure to turn the airbag off, especially for a rear-facing seat. You must remember to turn the airbag back on for the protection of the next adult passenger.

For more good advice on kids and cars, look for a certified car seat technician in your area. You may find a free child, safety seat checkpoint or car seat check at a local hospital, police or fire department or state highway safety office. And remember, crashes happen, but with proper precautions, serious injuries don't have to.

This presentation was created by the Kohl's Injury Prevention Program and the Center for Injury Research and Prevention at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

Narrator: Of all the frightening statistics we hear about child passenger safety, this may be the scariest. Three out of 4 car seats are not installed correctly. Between the different types of cars and child safety seats, there are literally hundreds of different ways to install a child seat. That's why a different system was developed for installing child safety seats without the use of seat belts. It's called LATCH.

Simply put, it works by using a built-in strap with hooks on the child's safety seat which attach to anchors in the car. LATCH is used for both rear- and forward-facing child safety seats. Most belt-positioning booster seats do not need to be attached to the vehicle so they do not come equipped with LATCH. Any car made after September 2002 must come with LATCH in at least two seating positions. Your vehicle owner's manual will tell you if LATCH is present. You can also look for the built-in latch anchors which are usually marked by a symbol or tag on the vehicle's seat.

LATCH-equipped vehicles will have two lower anchors and one top tether anchor installed in each LATCH seating position. Convertible cars are not required to have tether anchors. LATCH-equipped child safety seats will have two LATCH attachments that connect to the lower anchors. Forward-facing safety seats will also have one top tether strap that connects to the tether anchor in the vehicle. Lower anchors are small horizontal bars that are found in the rear seat of the car where the seat back and bottom seat cushions meet. Top tether anchors for forward-facing safety seats can be found in different areas of your car such as the floor, underneath the vehicle seat or the rear-window shelf. Consult your car manual for help.

The top tether attaches to an anchor in the vehicle. Top tethers greatly reduce the amount of head movement a forward-facing child may experience in a crash. Infant car seats have lower attachments only. If your rear-facing infant seat has a detachable base, only the base will have a set of lower attachments. convertible child safety seats have both a top tether and lower attachments. When installing this seat in a rear-facing position, usually you use only the lower attachment hooks. Some convertible seats available in the United States use a top tether when rear-facing. Check the safety seat's manual. Forward-facing child seats use both a top tether and lower attachment hooks.

LATCH may make it easier to get the child seat in right the first time and every time. With LATCH, you install your child safety seat without using your vehicle seat belt. Of course, you should always check your vehicle and car seat manuals for specific details, but here's some general guidelines for using LATCH:

First, fasten the safety seat's lower attachment to your vehicle's lower anchors. Tighten and adjust according to the instructions in your manual. You may need to use your upper body's weight to press down the seat as you attach the lower attachment hooks for a tight fit. If you are using a child safety seat in the forward-facing position, attach the safety seat's top tether strap to the top anchor in your vehicle. Pull to tighten. Check to see if the seat is tight in the car. You should not be able to move it more than an inch, side to side or forward. Always make sure you are attaching to the LATCH anchors, not part of the vehicle trim or other vehicle tie-downs. And never fasten more than one safety seat to the same anchor. The LATCH system may make car seat installation easier, but remember whether it's by LATCH or by seat belt, any properly installed child safety seat can save lives.

For more good advice on kids and cars, look for a certified car seat technician in your area. You may find a free child safety seat checkpoint or car seat check at a local hospital, police or fire department or state highway safety office. And remember, crashes happen, but with proper precautions, serious injuries don't have to.

This presentation was created by the Kohl's Injury Prevention Program and the Center for Injury Research and Prevention at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.