SALT LAKE CITY — As families get ready to pile into the car for summer road trips, safety checks are especially important. One Utah woman is stressing the proper use of kids' car seats after a fateful December day that changed her life.
On Dec. 23, 2018, Jordan Seamons and her family were having a normal day until tragedy struck. "We were on our way to Salt Lake to see the lights at Temple Square and spend time with family right before the holiday," Jordan Seamons said.
A 19-year-old girl had fallen asleep behind the wheel, crossed over into oncoming traffic, and hit them head-on. Their car rolled six times. That day, Seamons lost her husband right before her eyes.
"Him and I were chatting in the car, and a couple of minutes later, he was gone. That's how fast it all, it all happened," Seamons said.
"I was taken to the hospital, and then my little girl was miraculously fine," Seamons said.
Seamons' two-year-old daughter was unharmed in the crash. Just weeks earlier, Seamons' instincts told her to do something really important. She and her husband had switched their daughter's car seat to be front-facing over the summer. Months later, they switched it back.
"We were getting in the car to literally go to Thanksgiving, and I said, ' Switch her back, switch her back to rear-facing, and he kind of looked at me like, ' Why? She loves forward-facing; she can see out more, I don't think she gets as sick, and I just told him, no, switch her back. He was like, OK, so we switched her back rear-facing," Seamons said.
That decision is what medical experts believe saved her daughter's life. "He just said that her car seat saved her life. Had this been forward-facing, this would have been a completely different outcome," Seamons said.
Far too many parents jump the gun, eager to move their child to the next stage of a car seat or a position that isn't safe for them.
"Over the last five years, we see that almost a third of kids that are in crashes from 0 to 8 years old are not buckled up or not buckled up properly," said Jason Mettmann from the Utah Department of Public Safety.
"They wanna move their child up to the next stage, but the car seat was designed for a child of that age range and age and height, and so they really need to stay in the seat as long," said Amy Winkler, Occupant Protection Manager with DPS.
Children must stay rear-facing as long as possible, often until after age 2, and they weigh 30 pounds. Once they are ready to face forward, they must remain in the seat until the child reaches the height or weight allowed by the car seat manufacturer.
A booster must be used when the child is too big for forward-facing car seats, typically when they reach age 4 or 40 pounds. When the seatbelt fits properly around your child, they can sit in a generic back seat, at no younger than 8 years old.
"Just one little misuse or not having it tight enough could cost your kids' lives," Winkler said.
Take the time to make sure your child's car seat is installed correctly and take it to a checkpoint to make sure it is the proper one for your child, because even when you do everything right, someone else might not.
"Your child, husband, or you could die in a car accident. We're driving around killing machines, essentially, like we are putting a lot of trust and faith in humanity and mankind," Seamons said.
You can have your car seat inspected for proper installation free of charge. Follow this link to find the inspection station map.
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