Checking your child’s safety seats

By Candice Nelson
WSLS10 Reporter
Published: May 14, 2008

Roanoke County Police are making sure your child is safe in the car.
Officials were checking safety seats outside the Wal-Mart in Bonsack on Wednesday.
Jennifer Dunford wanted to make sure her three-month-old son was safe.

“I thought, well I better just go ahead and get it checked out. You know, something might happen. And then when I got up here, I found out my seat was defective. And they took it back into Wal-Mart and they exchanged it for another one,” Dunford said.

Officials say your child needs to be at least one year old and twenty pounds to face forward in the car seat. Otherwise, he or she needs to be rear-facing.
If the child is facing forward ,the straps need to be in the top slots of the seat. Also, they said to use the 1-inch test. If you can move the seat more than an inch from side to side, it needs to be tightened.

Also, officials said a child less than eight years old needs to be in a booster seat or car seat.