Car Seat Safety for Babies in Pickups

Most people are aware that a child needs to be secured in a car seat when traveling in a vehicle. There are special considerations involved when the vehicle is a pickup truck. Most trucks can usually accommodate a car seat, but trucks are usually less safe than cars for children in car seats.

Warning

• According to car-seat-safety.org, no baby should ride in a side-facing jump seat until at least the age of eight, when the child likely no longer uses a car seat or booster seat.

Airbags

• Dr. Spock's website emphasizes the importance of never positioning a car seat near a functioning airbag.

Features

• According to Carseat.org, a car seat may be installed in any truck that can accommodate at least 80 percent of the car seat's base.

Considerations

• If you must use a truck, your child is safer in a backseat--seat rear-facing--than the front seat, as long as airbags are disabled and the backseats are side-facing. Your child's seat can be put in the front seat if there isn't a backseat, if necessary.

Expert Insight

• According to researchers at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, children in car seats--in the front seat or backseat--in compact, extended-cab trucks are five times more likely to be hurt than children secured in any other type of vehicle.