Car Safety: In and Out of the Car

An air bag can save a life. However, air bags and young children are a dangerous combination.​ This article gives information to help keep parents and their young children safe.

Whether taking a newborn home from the hospital in their first car seat or handing a newly-licensed teenager the keys to their first car, one of the most important jobs parents have is keeping their children safe in and around the car and on the road. This article gives parents tips to prevent heat stroke, on choosing car seats, and other ways to keep children safe in and around cars.

Using a car safety seat correctly makes a big difference. It is important to choose the right seat for a child’s size and make sure it is used correctly to properly protect a child in a crash. Here are car seat tips from the American Academy of Pediatrics.

One of the most important jobs a parent has is keeping their child safe when they are riding in a vehicle. Proper use of car safety seats helps keep children safe. This article gives tips on choosing the car seat that best fits a particular child.

CDC offers a variety of resources and related pages on children and car safety, including guidelines for parents and caregivers, strategies to increase car seat and booster seat use, and a booster seat planning guide.

This web page explains the Child Passenger Protection Act for Illinois including the child safety seat guidelines for specifics age groups: newborn-2 years, ages 2-4, ages 4-8, and ages 8-12. This page also offers child passenger safety tips as well as locations for safety seat fitting stations, with certified child safety seat technicians, throughout the state of Illinois.

A child left in a hot car–or who gets into an unlocked vehicle unnoticed–can die of heat stroke very quickly. Dozens of U.S. children lose their lives this way each year. These tragedies can be prevented. Here is what parents need to know about the danger of hot cars, and steps they can take to help keep their children safe.

Over the past 25 years, more than 950 children have died of heatstroke, because they were left or became trapped in a hot car. It’s important for everyone to understand that children are more vulnerable to heatstroke and that all hot car deaths are preventable.

This free online module on Safe Routes and Vehicle Safety is a part of a larger training on Safe Environments geared to family childcare providers. The module offers training on how to address children’s safety rules and procedures when they are transported in vehicles, on foot, on bike, or entering and exiting the bus. Videos, activities, a glossary, and a quiz are included.

Winter is a tricky time for car seats. As a general rule, bulky clothing, including winter coats and snowsuits, should not be worn underneath the harness of a car seat. This article gives some tips to help strike that perfect balance between keeping young children warm as well as safely buckled in their car seats.