Your top priority as a driver should be to keep yourself, your passengers, and others on the road safe each time you get behind the wheel. However, once you become a parent, this safety becomes even more important as little pieces of your heart ride in the car with you.
Although being on the road is inherently dangerous and car accidents can happen at any time and for any reason, there are things you can do to avoid car accidents and protect yourself and your family in the event that an accident does take place. To help you know what these things are, here are three things you can do to keep your family safer in the car.
Seat Your Kids In The Back
The safest place for your kids to be when riding in the car is in the back seat. Even when your kids think that they’re old enough to ride up front with you, you shouldn’t really only allow this once your children are big enough to fit in a normal car seat without making any accommodations. According to Michelle Naranjo, a contributor to Consumer Reports, this will usually be around the time your child turns 12-years-old.
Until that point, you should always have your kids seated in the back seat. And depending on their age and size, they should also be in the appropriate car seat to help keep them even safer.
Buckle Up On Every Car Trip
Even if you and your kids are just driving down the street to the park or heading over to your nearby school, everyone in the car should always wear their seat belt on each and every car trip.
Especially when you consider that car crashes are the leading cause of death in people under the age of 33, according to Stanford Children’s Health, you can see why buckling up on every car trip is vital to the health and safety of everyone in the car. Seat belts can not only save lives, but they can also help reduce the chances of sustaining debilitating injuries as well.
Keep Loose Items To A Minimum
Although it’s not always easy to keep your car clean when you have little ones in tow, the way you store items in your car can have a big impact on how safe everyone is inside.
According to KidSpot.com.au, anything that’s left loose in the car, like toys or food containers, can become projectiles in the event of a car accident. These items could cause a lot of harm or property damage during a car accident, so keeping these things to a minimum is ideal.
To help you and your family stay safe each time you get in the car together, consider implementing the tips mentioned above.
