### Infant And Child Seats

An infant who can't sit up should be placed in a rear-facing restraint secured by an adult safety belt in a vehicle's back seat. Such restraints provide very good protection but can pose a safety risk if placed in the front seat with a passenger air bag. An inflating bag could hit the restraint with enough force to cause serious injury or death. In vehicles with no rear seat, automakers may install manual cut-off switches for passenger air bags. Drivers of these vehicles should check the passenger bag status before every trip.

CAUTION
Don't position an infant in front if there's a passenger air bag!

When infants first outgrow their safety seats and can sit up by themselves, they should travel in special child restraints — again, held in place by adult safety belts in the back seat. When used properly, such restraints provide good crash protection, and they're offered as optional built-ins in the back seats of a number of passenger vehicles. Older children can use either adult safety belts or booster seats to make the adult belts fit better. What's crucial to remember is that infants and children should ride, properly buckled into special restraints or safety belts, in the back seat. This was true before air bags, and it's doubly true now because riding in back puts children out of the paths of inflating air bags.

NOTE: If children must ride up front, set the seat all the way back. Don't let a child fiddle with radio dials, for example, because this can put the youngster's head too close to the air bag.