Lower Swatara Township Police will be joining other agencies across the state in an enforcement detail focusing on seat belt and child seat violations. Police will also be checking to make sure child seats are utilized and anchored properly. Residents are reminded to always wear their seat belts weather driving or riding in a vehicle and to ensure that their children's safety seats are properly secured according to manufacturer instructions. Residents will see an increased Police presence on the roadways in the township.

Parents and Caregivers: 
Ensure Children are in the Right Seat

[Lower Swatara Twp, PA]  — The U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is reminding parents and caregivers that children are best protected in a crash when they are correctly buckled in the right seat for their age and size. Car seats and booster seats have height and weight limits. To maximize safety, children should stay in each seat until they outgrow either of those limits. The safest place for all children under 13 is the back seat, as frontal air bags are designed for adult passengers.

Vehicle crashes are a leading cause of death for children, and research from NHTSA shows that 46% of car seats are misused. Common issues include children being in the wrong types of car seats for their age and size, and car seats being installed incorrectly — both of which leave children vulnerable to injury in a crash. Every day in 2024, two children 14 years old and younger killed in traffic crashes and another 349 were injured in traffic crashes while riding in passenger vehicles. 

“No one should be overconfident when it comes to a child’s safety."  “Caregivers need to know for sure that their children are in the right seats and that those seats are installed correctly.”  

Keeping a child in the right seat for their age and size can make all the difference in a crash. Of the child passengers killed in crashes in 2024, more than a third (39%) were unrestrained. Car seats have been shown to reduce fatal injury by 71% for infants under 1 year old and by 54% for toddlers 1 to 4 years old in passenger cars.  

Infants have the highest rate of restraint use among children who survived fatal crashes in 2024: For those 1 year old and under, 97% of those children were buckled. Once a child outgrows a rear-facing car seat, he or she is ready for a forward-facing car seat with a harness. Only after reaching the maximum height or weight limits of a forward-facing car seat — which takes longer than most parents think — a child should be buckled in a booster seat until large enough to fit in an adult seat belt correctly. 

Booster seats are a critical step between harnessed car seats and adult seat belts. If the seat belt doesn’t fit a child correctly, it won’t offer them the optimal protection in a crash. In 2024, the number of children killed in passenger vehicle crashes was highest for children ages 8 to 12.  Once a child is ready to use a seat belt, parents should ensure that it fits correctly — that the seat belt lies across the upper thighs and is snug across the shoulder and chest, away from the face and neck. 

NHTSA.gov has free resources available to answer parents and caregivers’ questions and point them in the right direction. Across the country, there are certified Child Passenger Safety 

Technicians who can help caregivers pick the right car seat, learn how to install it correctly, and know how to use it the right way on every trip. Learn about the different car seat types, read NHTSA’s research-based recommendations, and find and compare car seats.

For more information on child passenger safety, go to NHTSA.gov/TheRightSeat