Burnaby, British Columbia – June is Child Passenger Safety Month in British Columbia, marked for the fourth time by the BCAA Road Safety Foundation.
“Child passenger safety is a very important issue in British Columbia,” said Marg Deibert, child passenger safety educator for the BCAA Road Safety Foundation/ICBC Child Passenger Safety program. “Car crashes are still one of the leading causes of accidental death among children in this province, but using a child car seat can reduce the risk of injury and death by up to 85 per cent.”
As children grow, there are four car seat stages they go through in the first nine years:
Stage one – From birth to one year, and until your child is nine kilograms (20 lbs), your child must be restrained in a rear-facing child car seat.
Stage two – When your child has outgrown the rear-facing seat, is at least one year and weighs more than nine kilograms (20 lbs), he or she can now ride in a forward-facing child car seat.
Stage three – When your child has outgrown the forward-facing car seat and is at least 18 kilograms (40 lbs), a booster seat is required. The booster lifts the child up so that the seatbelt is positioned properly.
Stage four – At at least nine years of age, or at least 145 cm (four-foot-nine) tall, he or she is the appropriate size for a seatbelt.
For more information on child passenger safety, visit Child Seat Info.
