Car Seat Fitting & Installing Instructions - The Safety Restraint Coalition (2023)

Below are tips on proper fit and installation of a car seat.

As children grow their restraint needs change, make sure your child’s seat fits them properly through every stage:

• Rear-facing seats for infants and toddlers up to age two
  
• Forward-facing seats for preschoolers
  
• Booster seats for children under 4 feet 9 inches tall
  
• Seat belts for older children

Choosing the safest seat location for your child

Properly installing your car seat in your vehicle:

• Installing a car seat using seat belt
  
• Installing a car seat using lower anchors and tethers: LATCH systems
  
• Testing the tightness of a car seat installation
  
• Common installation issues

• The harness should lie flat and be snug on the child.
  
• You should not be able to pinch any excess webbing.
  
• Harness clip height
  
• The harness clip should be positioned at armpit level.
  
• Do not add padding or put heavy clothing on the child, creating extra space between the harness and child.

• Check the instructions/seat label for the minimum and maximum weight limits allowed. Premature or low-birth-weight infants may need a seat built for their smaller size. Consult your manual
  
• Children are five times safer riding rear facing until age two.* Most seats can be used rear facing beyond age one and 22 pounds. Consult your manual. *”Getting the Message Right,” Pediatrics, March 2008, 121:619-620

• The harness straps must come through the slots at or below the child’s shoulders. If the straps are above baby’s shoulders when in the lowest slots, then that car seat is not appropriate for your child. Consult your manual
  
• Rear-facing car seats recline to prevent the baby’s head from falling forward and blocking their airway. Use the leveling device on the car seat if one is available—or a rolled towel—to assure the seat is properly reclined. Consult your manual
  
• Once infants outgrow a carrier-style car seat, they should use a rear-facing convertible seat. Keep your child rear-facing until they reach the convertible seat’s rear-facing upper weight/height limits.
  
• Do not move your child into a forward-facing seat until:

• she is a minimum of one-year old and, for maximum safety, is preferably two years old, and
  
• she has reached either the height or weight limit for the seat.

• The harness must come through the slots at or above your child’s shoulders. The appropriate harness slot for a child can vary by manufacturer. Consult your manual
  
• You will probably need to make some adjustments for the harness to fit properly whether the seat is used or new. Consult your manual
  
• Convertible seats recline. Be sure it’s at the appropriate angle when used forward facing. Consult your manual
• Children should ride forward facing in a seat with a harness until:

• the child reaches the maximum height or weight limit for the seat, or
  
• the harness straps are no longer at or above the child's shoulders.

• Booster seats must ALWAYS be used with a lap and shoulder belt.
  
• A booster seat raises your child up so the adult lap and shoulder belt can be properly worn:

• across the center of the shoulder and chest—not rubbing the neck, and
• across the thighs—not over the abdomen.

• Never allow the child to move the shoulder part of the belt under their arm or behind their back.
  
• A child should use a booster seat until they outgrow it by height or weight.
  
• In Washington, vehicles with only lap belts are exempt from the requirement to use a booster seat for children weighing more than 40 pounds.
  
• When the child is not riding in their booster seat, make sure you buckle up the booster seat so it doesn't become a projectile in a crash.
  
• Twinkie Physics Card for download and printing
  
• Use Twinkie® Physics to understand proper seat belt fit and how a misplaced seat belt can injure a child in a crash. Download, print and fold the card on the right which also includes the 5-Step Test below to help decide when the seat belt fits properly.

• 1. Does the child sit all the way back against the vehicle seat?
• 2. Do the child’s knees bend comfortably at the edge of the vehicle seat without slouching?
• 3. Does the lap belt stay on the top part of the child’s thighs, not over the abdomen?
• 4. Is the shoulder belt centered on the chest and shoulder?
• 5. Can the child stay seated this way for the whole trip?

If the answer is NO to any of these questions, or if your child puts the shoulder part of the seat belt under their arm or behind their back, your child still needs to use a booster seat.

For example, Washington law requires children to ride in the back seat of the vehicle until their 13th birthday whenever it is practical to do so.

Read more —

The Ultimate List Of Remarkable Free Car Seat In The United States

• 1. Switchable retractor (most common): Slowly pull the lap-shoulder belt webbing out all the way. If when you retract the seat belt you hear a ratcheting sound (like a zipper) and the webbing is locked when you pull on it, you have a switchable seat belt. To install a car seat, feed the lap/shoulder belt through the proper belt path on the car seat and buckle. Pull the belt webbing all the way out to switch it into its locked mode. Apply downward pressure on the child restraint while steadily pulling the shoulder belt toward the retractor. NOTE: The seat belt will not hold the car seat in place unless you switch the seat belt into its locked mode.

• 2. Locking latch plate: If, when you pull the lap-shoulder belt all the way out, it does not switch into a locked mode, then it’s likely the latch plate is what locks the seat belt. To install a car seat, feed the seat belt through the proper belt path on the car seat and buckle. Apply downward pressure on the child restraint while you pull the shoulder belt to tighten.

  It’s not very common (Volvo, Saab, Chrysler, Jeep), but you may also have a seat belt that locks by switching a button on the back of the latch plate. In either situation, the latch plate is what locks the car seat in tight.

• 3. Vehicles manufactured before 1996 may need a locking clip, which comes with your car seat, because neither the retractor nor latch plate lock to hold a car seat in tight. Refer to your owner's manual for installation instructions.

Tethers: required in most vehicles beginning with model year 1999. Consult your manual

Tethering a forward-facing car seat is important because it reduces the forward movement of the car seat and child’s head during a crash.

• Check child restraint movement from side-to-side (in relation to the vehicle), not front to back.
  
• Use one hand placed at the seat belt path. Push and pull using only the force of a firm handshake.
  
• Up to one inch of side-to-side movement is acceptable.
  
• The car seat should be level and not tipped to one side.

• 450,000 public school buses
  
• 24 million students transported
  
• 4 billion miles traveled
  
• 10 billion student trips
  
• 20 billion times a student gets on or off

While catastrophic school bus crashes have occurred, they are rare events. Most school bus crashes are minor, and in most crashes involving passenger cars and light trucks, the school bus has the advantage of its larger size and weight.

As a result, many more people are killed or injured each year in vehicles that crash into school buses than are killed or injured in the school buses. It is difficult, if not impossible, to develop ways to protect school bus occupants in catastrophic crashes, such as those involving trains and heavy trucks.

The crash forces in those crashes are so great that any reasonable structural design cannot maintain the integrity of the vehicle, which is one critical component of occupant crash protection. (COPY: 2000 National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services.)

There are Federal standards that apply to school buses. As a result of the passage of the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966 and the School Bus Safety Amendments of 1974, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, an agency of the U.S. Department of Transportation, has issued 36 Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) which apply to school buses.

These standards cover a range of components and systems, e.g., brakes, steering, glazing, lights, fuel system integrity, mirrors, heaters/defrosters, compressed natural gas containers, etc., and apply to all types of motor vehicles. Many of these federal standards have unique requirements for school buses.

The design and construction of today's school buses are a direct result of both the FMVSSs which apply to school buses and the guidelines adopted by the National Conferences on School Transportation, as well as some requirements that are unique to particular states or local school districts. While today's school buses do not look much different than their predecessors of 30-40 years ago, they are dramatically different.

The improvements made to school buses in the past decades, as well as improvements in driver training, school bus maintenance, and school bus operating procedures, have been responsible for the outstanding safety record of school transportation. Well-trained school bus drivers avoid many crashes. (COPY: 2000 National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services.)

FMVSS No. 222 brings us full circle to the term “compartmentalization.” Think back to your days on the good ol' school bus. Remember how those rigid green seats were wedged closer together than on even the cheapest no-frills airline? That's compartmentalization in action.

Sitting in "strong, closely-spaced seats that have energy-absorbing high seat backs," passengers are effectively protected from crashes. Of course, the method can't prevent all injuries, but the NHTSA argues it's the best possible solution. Several studies have shown seat belts would provide "little, if any, added protection."