Posted on Sep 08, 2017

When your children were babies, it was easier to keep them safe in the car. Car seats were non-negotiable. You had the ability to physically put them in the seat and buckle the five point harness before you started the car.

Now things are a little different. Your tween or young teenager is no longer in a car seat. Instead, your child travels with a seat belt. However, your child—like many tweens—may be starting to give you a hard time.

This year National Child Passenger Safety Week is September 17–23, 2017. A focus of this year’s safety campaign is tween passengers. According to the United States Department of Transportation more than 1,550 tweens between the ages of 8 and 14 were killed in motor vehicle crashes during the last five years and almost half of these kids were not wearing seat belts.

Three Ways to Keep Your Child Safe

As a parent, there are a few things that you can do to make sure that your tween is as safe as possible in a car accident, including:

  • Making seat belts non-negotiable in your vehicle. Your child, your child’s friends, and every passenger in your car must buckle their seat belts before you start the car.
  • Making sure that every person who drives your child has the same rule. Grandparents, carpool drivers, relatives, and friends must ensure that your child is wearing a seat belt at all times.
  • Making sure that your child understands the consequences of not wearing a seat belt. This includes your own household policies about breaking the rules and the physical dangers of failing to wear a seat belt.

As always, you are your child’s first and best teacher. Be a good role model and always buckle your own seat belt every time you are in a car.

Help Spread the Word

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Tween Seat Belt Safety campaign has lots of materials that you can use to help children—and those who drive them—understand the importance of seat belts. Please share this information widely. Together, we can help prevent tragedies on our roads.

If your child has been involved in a car crash please contact us online or call us directly at 800.800.5678 to schedule your free consultation.

Jason F. Abraham
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Helping car accident and personal injury victims throughout Wisconsin, Illinois and Iowa since 1993.