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Booster seats and safety belts
Properly used booster seats can help protect
children weighing between about 40 lbs and
80 lbs (18 kg and 36 kg) who are less than 4 ft
9
in (57 in/1.45 m) tall.
Fig. 173 Rear seat; child proper ly restrained in a booster
seat
The vehicle's safety belts alone will not fit most
children until they are at least 4
ft 9 in (57 in/
1.45 m) tall and weigh about 80 lbs (36 kg).
Booster seats ra ise t hese children up so that the
safety belt will pass properly over the stronger
parts of their bodies and the safety belt can help
protect them in a crash.
.,. Do not use the convertible locking retractor
when using the vehicle's safety belt to restrain
a child on a booster seat.
.. The shoulder belt must lie as close to the cen-
ter of the child's collar bone as possible and
must lie flat and snug on the upper body.
It
must never lie across the throat or neck . The
lap belt must lie across the pelvis and never
across the stomach or abdomen . Make sure the
belt lies flat and snug. Pull on t he belt to tight-
en if necessary .
.,. Secure unused safety belts on the rear seat
<:!>page 219.
Children up to at least 8 years old (over 40 lbs or
18 kg) are best protected in ch ild safety sea ts de-
signed for their age and weight. Experts say that
the skeleta l structure, particularly the pelvis, of
these children is not fully developed, and they
must not use the vehicle safety belts without a
suitable child restraint.
Child safety
It is usually best to put these children in appro-
priate booster seats. Be sure the booster seat
meets all applicab le safety standards .
Booster sea t s raise the seating posit ion of the
child and reposition both the lap and shou lder
parts of the safety belt so that they pass across
the child's body in the right places. The routing of
the belt over the child's body is very important
for the child's protection, whether or not a boos-
ter seat is used . Children age 12 and under m ust
always ride in the rear seat.
Never use the lap belt port ion of the vehicle's
safety belt alone to restrain any child, regardless
of how big the child is. Always remember that
children do not have the pronounced pe lvic struc-
ture required for the proper funct ion of lap belt
portion of the vehicle's t hree point lap and
shoulder belts. The child's safety absolutely re-
quires that a lap belt portion of the safety be lt be
fastened snugly and as low as possible around
the pelvis. Never let the lap belt portion of the
safety belt pass over the child's stomach or abdo-
men.
In a crash, airbags must inflate within a blink of
an eye and with considerab le force. In order to do
its job, the airbag needs room to inflate so that it
will be there to protect the occupant as the occu-
pant moves forward into the airbag .
A vehicle occupant who is out of position and too
close to the airbag gets in the way of an inflating
airbag. When an occupant is too close, he or she
will be struck violently and will receive serious or
possibly even fata l injury.
In order for the airbag to offer protect ion, it is
important that all vehicle occupants, especially
any ch ildren , who must be in the front seat be-
cause of exceptiona l circumstances, be properly
restrained and as far away from t he airbag as
poss ible. By keeping room between the child's
body and the front of the passenger compart-
ment, the airbag can inflate comp letely and pro-
vide supplementa l protection in certain frontal
collisions .
223
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