Child Passenger Safety

It is critical to ensure your child’s car seat is correctly installed and to make sure it's used every time they ride in a vehicle. Unfortunately, statistics show that three out of four child car safety seats are either not used or are installed incorrectly.

What You Should Know About Child Passenger Safety

The back seat is the safest place for a child to be. It is estimated that children ages 12 and under are 36 percent less likely to die in a crash if they are in the back seat.

Accept a used child car seat with caution. Never accept a seat that’s more than seven years old or one that was in a crash (even if it looks OK). Avoid seats with obvious wear and tear, missing parts or lacking the manufacturer’s date and model number (you’ll have no way to know about recalls). Also, check the seat for the manufacturer’s recommended “expiration date.”

To make sure your child is properly secured in their seat every time they ride in your vehicle, follow these car seat guidelines:

Fitting Infants & Toddlers

The American Association of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends keeping children in a rear-facing car seat up to age two, or as long as the child fits the seat. This would be either by weight (according to the seat’s manufacturer specifications) or by height (when the top of the child’s head is one inch below the top of the seat). Your child is 75 percent less likely to have a serious injury in a crash if he or she is rear-facing.

When a child has outgrown the rear-facing limits, you can turn the child around to forward-facing. The AAP guidelines state that children stay in a child safety seat until at least age four or until he or she outgrows it by either height or weight.

With both the rear-facing and forward-facing car seats, be sure your child is buckled correctly every time: harness straps untwisted, the chest clip positioned at armpit level, and the harness secured properly into the buckle.

Finding the Right Car Seat

Booster seats are ideal for older children who haven’t grown enough to safely use the vehicle seat belts yet (under 4-foot-9 and/or under 80 pounds), but have outgrown their forward-facing car seats. Be sure that the seat you choose fits your child; a smaller child can slip out of a seat that’s too large.

Wearing Seatbelts

Kids can start wearing a regular seatbelt when they can easily rest their back against the seat of the car and bend their knees over the edge of the seat. Usually, this happens when kids are 8-12 years old and around 4-foot-9. Make sure the lap belt fits comfortably across the thighs (not the stomach) and that your child is not slouching. The shoulder strap should go across the chest and shoulder, and never goes beneath a child's arm, behind the back, or across the neck. Seatbelts must be worn correctly for them to work properly.

Safety Seat Inspections

Ensuring your child's car seat is correctly installed is critical to his or her safety. Child Passenger Safety (CPS) Seat inspections are offered at Nemours Children’s Hospital, Delaware. A nationally certified technician will help explain how to properly install your child’s car seat, free of charge.

Child Passenger Safety Station

When: Please call or email for a list of available appointments. Appointment is required.

Where: Nemours Children’s Hospital, Delaware — Employee Parking Garage

To schedule an appointment or for more information:

Call (302) 651-5437 or email cpsstation@nemours.org

Learn more

Directions to Nemours Children’s Hospital, Delaware — Employee Parking Garage

The Child Passenger Safety Seat Check is held in the employee parking garage on the grounds of Nemours Children’s Hospital, Delaware. Directions are as follows:

From the North (Route 202):

Take Route 202 South. You will see the AstraZeneca campus on the right. Make a right at the light onto Powder Mill Road (Route 141). Driving under a walkway overpass, stay on this road and it will become Children's Drive. Turn left at the light in front of the hospital gates (do not go thru the gates). At the next traffic light turn right and follow the directions to the Child Passenger Safety Check below.

From the South (I-95):

From I-95 North, take Exit 8 — Concord Pike/Route 202 N exit. Stay to the left. Once on Route 202, get in the far left lane. Turn left at the third light onto Powder Mill Road (Route 141). Driving under a walkway overpass, stay on this road and it will become Children's Drive. Turn left at the light in front of the hospital gates (do not go thru the gates). At the next traffic light turn right and follow the directions to the Child Passenger Safety Check below.

From the West:

Take Route 141 North (Barley Mill Road), crossing the Tyler McConnell Bridge. Turn left at the DuPont Experimental Station, staying on Route 141 North (Powder Mill Road). Travel a mile and a half, making a right at the second light onto Children's Drive. Turn left at the light in front of the hospital gates (do not go thru the gates). At the next stop traffic light turn right and follow the directions to the Child Passenger Safety Check below.

Directions to the Child Passenger Safety Check:

After turning right at the traffic light, the parking garage will be on your right. Continue straight passing the first entrance to the garage. Look for the Child Passenger Safety Seat Station sign which will be on your right. Turn right at the sign into a parking lot. The employee parking garage will be straight ahead. Go straight into the garage and follow the blue overhead signs to the Child Passenger Safety Seat Station.