Child safety seats (sometimes referred to as an infant safety seat, a child restraint system, a restraint car seat, or ambiguously as car seats) are seats designed specifically to protect children from injury or death during collisions. Automobile manufacturers may integrate child safety seats directly into their vehicle's design. Most commonly, these seats are purchased and installed by consumers. Many regions require children defined by age, weight, and/or height to use a governmentally approved child safety seat when riding in a vehicle. Child safety seats provide passive restraints and must be properly used to be effective.
History
After the first automobile was manufactured and put on the market in the early 1900s, many modifications and adjustments have been implemented to protect those that drive and ride in these vehicles. Most restraints were put into place to protect adults without regard for children, infant through pre-school age. Though child seats were beginning to be manufactured in the early 1930s, their purpose was not the safety of children. The purpose was to act as booster seats to bring the child to a height easier for the driving parent to see them. It wasn’t until 1962 that seats were invented in England by Jeans Ames with the purpose of protecting a child.
Before these seats were invented, rates of death in infants to young children were staggering. Over 2,000 children under the age of fourteen in the United States die every year in automobile accidents.[2]and another 320,000 are injured each year.[3] These injuries and deaths are not just a result of the severity of the accidents themselves. The staggering numbers, in general, can be related to the number of children not being properly restrained within the vehicles. These children are either strapped into adult seat belts or else completely unrestrained.
Law
United States of AmericaAs a result of these statistics, it is required by law the children under the age of four be secured in safety seats made for children in all of the fifty states. Also, all states require booster seats for children aged four to fourteen depending upon each individual child's age, weight, height, and state. These laws are basic guidelines only and can differ state to state.
AustraliaAs in the United States road rules are at the command of each separate state or territory, In Victoria a child must be correctly restrained until 7 years of age, using each of the three seats described below.
Type
All child safety seats are made and manufactured using the same process, however there are different types of seats for children of different size and age with specific guidelines as to how they should be used.
* Infant seats - From the time a child is born, they must always ride in an infant seat which is most well known as a rear-facing convertible seat. These seats are designed for a baby that is under twenty pounds and should always remain facing the rear of a vehicle. Seats made specifically for infants are the smallest and have carrying handles for easy carrying and loading. They can be used until the infant is up to 22 through 32 pounds depending on the instructions specified on each individual model.
* Convertible seats - A convertible seat is a child safety restraint that is suggested for the use in the same age and weight range, they are just generally more bulky and can be converted to forward facing child seats as the child grows. Toddlers and pre-school aged children also are to use convertible seats. It is recommended that the child remains facing the rear of the vehicle as long as possible. The American Academy of Pediatrics recently started recommending to begin front-facing at the age of two. Children should ride in a convertible seat with a harness until they outgrow it around the age of four, or weigh at least sixty-five pounds.
* Booster seats - Children over 4 feet in height and between the ages of eight and twelve now upgrade to booster seats. These seats are also front facing and are designed to raise children up so that the belts made for adults fit properly. By this age and size, the child has completely outgrown any rear-facing seat. From the height of 4 feet 9 inches, and the ages of eight to twelve, children may have outgrown their booster seats and can be permitted to use regular adult seat restraints. It is suggested that, until the age of thirteen, the child remains in the back seat.
