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American Morning

Safer Seats

Aired August 28, 2002 - 09:46   ET

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

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: The number-one cause of death for children, ages 1 through 14, happens to be car accidents. And just about everyone knows that a car seat can be a lifesaving device. But nearly 80 percent of car seats are not installed incorrectly. So there is this new federal regulation aimed at solving that problem and making your kids' rides a lot safer.
Joining us from Washington to explain the new system is Dr. Jeffrey Runge. He is head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Dr. Runge, good morning.

DR. JEFFREY RUNGE, NHTSA: Good morning, Daryn. How are you?

KAGAN: I am doing OK. Let's strap in the kids safely. How does this new contraption work?

RUNGE: Well, this is called LATCH, and it's an acronym for lower anchors and Tethers for Children. And what it's all about is, you know, with the history of parents struggling to get car seats properly installed, this is a technique that makes it a lot simpler, and therefore, much safer for children, because they can get the car seats put in 100 percent of the time.

KAGAN: Can you show us it works?

RUNGE: Sure. There is a couple of pieces to this. One is the lower anchor, which you can see right here, that's built into the vehicle and is actually part of vehicle's construction, so that the crash pulses can be absorbed by the vehicle. And the second part of this is a mechanism that's actually an attachment clip, as you can see right here.

So I am just going to -- I wish I had this when my kids were small, because you will see in just a second to put in the car seat properly. Once it is here, just take the attachment clip, hook it in, hook it in on the other side, and then, with the weight of the adult, making sure that it's properly -- that the slack is all taken out, give it a good cinch, and then the all-important upper tether, which attaches to, in this case, to the back of the seat. A good seat there, and, voila! we have a very firmly anchored car seat.

KAGAN: You are ready to go.

Now as I understand it, so new cars actually come with it. But if you have an older car, there is this new attachment to make it work like that that you need to go pick up.

RUNGE: Well, actually, I want to make this really clear. You don't have to go out and buy a new car seat, you don't have to go and buy a new car. You know, car seats that use the belt system as opposed to the latch system work very well, but we want to emphasize this is important to get those seats checked at a car seat-fitting station.

We actually have a toll-free that DaimlerChryler has furnished, as well as a Web site. I think you can see it behind me.

We want parents to know that this is a convenience issue. It increases your chances of getting a good fit in your car seat. But the most important thing is that every trip, every single time that the child is firmly anchored into the car seat and the car seat is firmly anchored into the car.

KAGAN: OK, I am just a little confused, if you have a new car, you probably have this system. If you don't have a new car, can you get it so that you can use it and adjust your older car.

RUNGE: You cannot retrofit the vehicle, but you can retrofit the car seat. If you buy a new car that has the anchors and you want to use the latch, you can buy, for most car seats, you can buy a retrofit kit that will slip through inside, and it will hook into the latch.

KAGAN: OK, keeping kids safe. Dr. Runge, we don't quite have the phone number, so if you look behind you and tell us exactly. I think it's 1-866 something.

RUNGE: Yes. 866-SEAT-CHECK, and our Web site is www.seatcheck.org, which will also give you a link to the NHTSA Web site, where you can learn a lot more about latch.

KAGAN: Seatcheck.org, very easy to remember. Dr. Jeffrey Runge, thank you for your tips in trying to make our kids safer. We appreciate it.

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