As many as three out of every four child car seats are used incorrectly in North Dakota.
As part of Child Passenger Safety Week this week, North Dakota’s Department of Health and Human Services is encouraging parents and caregivers to get their car seat installations checked by certified child passenger safety technicians.
Dawn Mayer is child passenger safety program coordinator. She says last year, 75 percent of all car seats checked in North Dakota had at least one misuse.
"The top misuses we're seeing, is caregivers are not using the harnesses correctly, they're not using the tether strap. And there's misuse with using the lower anchors to install a car seat, and the seat belt."
56 percent of car seats checked had incorrect harness use, 47 percent had incorrect tether use, and 40 percent had incorrect lower anchor use. Mayer says the tether for front facing car seats is essential for head protection.
Mayer says there are about 300 certified car seat safety technicians in North Dakota. They can be found by using a search engine on the HHS website. Mayer says checkups are offered throughout the year.
