Check Your Child Car Seat for Expiration Date
You expect expiration dates on yogurt, lunch meat and that carton of milk, but you may not realize that your child’s car seat has an expiration date as well. If you bought it brand new, chances are you have nothing to worry about, although it would still be a good idea to check the date of expiration.
Why Does a Child Car Seat Have an Expiration Date?
The design of the child car seat may not change that much. So why do they have expiration dates? Simply put, the plastics used to manufacture car seats break down over time. While a used car seat may look sturdy enough, if the plastic is old enough, it may not hold up if subjected to the impact of a crash and this, of course, can have tragic consequences.
Where to Find the Expiration Date
You should be able to find the expiration date on the bottom of the child car seat. There should be a label with the manufacturer’s name, the date the seat was manufactured and the expiration date. If the car seat is missing the label, it is best not to take chances. Just consider it expired.
Another thing to know about expiration dates is that the clock starts ticking on the day the seat was manufactured. Six years from that date the seat will expire. If you buy a new car seat and it has been sitting in the store for a couple of years, understand that your use of the seat will be less than six years.
The importance of proper use, including using a child car seat that has not expired, cannot be stressed enough. Safe Kids Worldwide states that with the inclusion of out-of-date car seats, three out of four car seats are used incorrectly.
The odds of your child avoiding death in a car accident increase to 71% when care is taken to use the child car seat properly. If you have expired car seats, get rid of them. Help save another child by cutting the straps and the fabric of the expired seat so that it will not be used by an uninformed parent.
Keep your child safe when traveling by using child car seats and restraints properly. For proper handling of your legal interests, call on the lawyers at Tison Law Group. We offer a variety of legal services including criminal/traffic law, administrative law, injunctions and addiction intervention. When you need legal services, contact Tison; we are known for our honesty, integrity, and excellence.
