Survey Shows Many People Still Aren't Using Car Seats Properly

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - When many people head out today, it'll be with kids tucked into their car seats. At least, that's the hope, but a survey finds a lot of us are doing it wrong.

Philadelphia native Lorrie Walker, training manager with the Safe Kids USA Buckle Up program, says a survey of 79,000 people who stopped for an expert check of their child seats finds a slight increase in those doing it right to about a third.

Clearly, parents (and, Walker stresses, anybody who drives junior anywhere) have to do better, "When they get the child out of the hospital. It's the first day. They have to recognize that they'll be using a rear-facing car seat, probably for the first two years, a harnessed car seat up until the child is five, maybe even six, and then a booster seat all the way up until they are maybe ten or even 11 years of age."

Walker admits this is a moving target with a constant influx of new parents, new cars and new safety seats. The last category really impresses her, "I've said it on national television that if they made one of these car seats for adults I would buy one and ride in it every day."

Reported by John Ostapkovich, KYW Newsradio 1060