Most parents are not following best practices for car seat installation and use, a new poll by The Harris Poll reveals. Those missteps could be putting drivers’ children in danger.
The results of the August 2024 poll were that sixteen percent of parents admitted they did not always use a car seat when they should have while transporting their youngest children in a car. That goes up for Gen Z and younger Millennial parents (aged 18-34), 21 percent of which say they did not always use a car seat.
It also found that respondents selected cost (61 percent) and safety (53 percent) as the top two vehicle attributes when considering a purchase or lease. Parents with children age of 12 under selected safety as the top vehicle attribute.
While many automakers now provide features and equipment inside the latest vehicles, child safety starts before the car is even turned on, with proper seats occupied and restraints employed.
Rivian teamed up with Michelle Pratt, founder of Safe in the Seat, to close the knowledge gap. Pratt shared five tips for proper car seat usage, noting that parents should always refer to their specific car seat manual for official guidance.
Rivian and Harris conducted a survey about child seat safety and found that most people don’t always use them as they’re supposed to.
Rivian
“As a father, I know how important it is to trust the vehicle you drive. Rivian’s award-winning EVs are reliable, make driving easier, and thanks to over-the-air software updates, they’re only getting better. Whether navigating rugged terrain on a weekend trip or pulling up to the carpool line, our vehicles are designed to be reliable companions, built with safety in mind from the start,” Alan Hoffman, Rivian’s Chief Policy Officer told Newsweek.
“Rivian is focused on more than making great EVs. It’s about building vehicles that invite people to adventure—whatever that means to them. And best of all – they’re built all in a way that protects the health of our planet alongside our drivers and passengers. From a crash structure that seeks to provide strong protection in an accident to 360-degree cameras, blind spot monitoring, and Gear Guard, our in-vehicle security system, Rivian helps keep you safe and confident on the road,” he said.
Tips include:
- Parents should always remove a puffy coat before putting their child in the car seat.
- Parents should also always ensure a newborn’s car seat is at a proper recline angle and they are tightly and properly harnessed.
- When a child is facing rearwards, make sure their harness straps are at or just below the shoulders. When forward-facing harness straps should be at or just above their shoulders.
- The seat’s chest clips on the child seat should always be at armpit level.
- The car seat should only be turned from rear-facing to forward-facing once the child maxes out the height limit, weight limit or head height limit of their car seat (whichever comes first).
The survey included over 2,000 participants. Participants qualified if they were over 18. More than 600 were parents of children under age 18.
