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CNN Live Today

New Child Safety Seat System to Save Lives

Aired August 28, 2002 - 12:40   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: From now on, all new cars will have a new feature, one intended to make them safer for children. It's called LATCH: lower anchors and tethers for children, and it makes it easier to properly install a car seat.
CNN's Kathleen Koch reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What the announcement here at the Department of Transportation means is that every single car sold in the United States and every single child safety seat that is sold starting September 1 will have in them what is called a LATCH system. That stands for lower anchors and tethers for children, and basically this new system is to dummy proof the installation of child safety seats in vehicles, because right now, a lot of mistakes are made that are threatening the lives of children.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Surveys show that 97 percent of all parents believe they always install and use such seats correctly. Just the opposite is the truth. In fact, eight out of 10 children are riding in improperly used or installed seats.

KOCH: Now with the LATCH system, the new car seats have basically tethers, three tethers or straps, one on either side and one at the back of the car seat, and those then are clipped by the parent into these anchors, fastened into anchors, one on either side of the child seat, and then one up behind it, and it can even be used with rear facing seats, like the one next to me, and as you can see, this seat is installed using the LATCH system, and it is in there very tight, very snug.

Now, the LATCH systems are not, though, going to be on the booster seats for the older children, only the small child safety seats for younger, lighter-weight children. And what they say is if you do have an older car seat, you can contact your manufacturer, and in some cases, some kits are available to retrofit your older child safety seats so that it also will work properly using this LATCH system.

Otherwise, they say, go ahead and use it with the car seats, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says it is still important, even with this new LATCH system, to go to one of these fitting stations just to make sure that you have installed your child seat correctly -- back to you.

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