ROANOKE, Va. – Even after your child outgrows a rear facing car seat, they still need a forward facing car seat or booster seat depending on their height and weight.
Certified car seat installer Tiffany Bradbury says keep them in some kind of child restraint as long as you can.
"The law in Virginia is age eight they can come out of their booster seats, but we hardly see 8-year-olds that are 4'9" tall. That's what best practice is. My daughter is eight, almost 8 1/2, she is still in her booster seat because that seatbelt is hitting her on the neck and it's riding up on her belly, not on her hips. If we were to have a crash it would sever through to her spinal cord," said Bradbury.
The other thing she recommends is making your child ride in the backseat until they are 13 years old.
"It is the safest place for everybody. The airbag deploys at 200 mph. We always tell parents this so they know. I know it's a battle. I've got three kids and I remember that 'why can't I ride up front, I'm bigger than grandma'. And I'm like 'because you're safest in the back'," said Bradbury.
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