It doesn't seem possible, but leaving your children unrestrained in a car that crashes at just 48 kph exposes them to the same risk as dropping them out of a third floor window.

Holding your child in your lap is no protection either. In a crash at just 40 kph, it will take only one-tenth of a second for you and the baby to hit the dashboard. Tests have proven that people wearing a lap/shoulder belt and holding dummy babies as tightly as possible, could not hang on when a simulated crash force was applied.

The solution

Infant carriers, child booster seats and regular car safety belts can reduce the risk for children in crashes. Properly secured youngsters have been pulled unharmed from cars in which unrestrained adults have been killed.

But using a car seat is not enough. A car seat has to be used properly to be safe and effective. That means strapping the child into the seat firmly and making sure the seat is secured according to manufacturer's directions.

Sergeant Gord Garfield of the Metro Toronto Police works in the traffic department. His beat is child car seats.

Outside a mall in Toronto he's upset by what he sees. "Oh lordy … it's way, way too loose," he says, examining a child seat inside a vehicle. "Your child is at terrible risk," he tells the parent.

Kids are often buckled up, but in Garfield's experience, 90 per cent of them aren't safely restrained.

Choosing the right seat

Before you fit a car seat safely into your vehicle, you have to choose a safe seat for your child.

Garfield points out that infants under 12 months old have neck muscles that aren't strong enough to resist much force. That's why a rear-facing seat is a must.

"The infant seat is usually designed for infant form birth up to 20 pounds," says Toronto public health nurse Wendy Chiu.

Once the seat is in, she says, "adjust it to a level that would make the harness tight." Chiu says the where the harness sits on the child is particularly important, "because if you make it too low ... if ever you're in a crash situation the spinal cord of the child could be compressed."

After babies outgrow the infant seat (at about 20 lbs.), they move on to a convertible seat, which can face back or front.

Convertible seats often have five-point harnesses and still need to be turned backward until the child can hold his or her head up and the neck and spine are strong (usually at around 12 months).

This style of seat can be used until the child is about 40 pounds or around 4 ½ -years old. When the child's ears are above the top of the seat, it's time to move on to another seat.

For a child who's too tall for an infant seat, there's an interim seat, a booster that has a five point harness in it. The chest clip, Chiu notes, is placed again at armpit level.

Garfield points out that "once she gets to over 42 lbs., the five-point harness will be removed, the tether strap will be removed, and what it turns into is a booster seat."

After a child gets to about 8-years-old or 60 lbs., they're ready for a regular seat.

Still, until 12 years of age children, should stay in the back seat - they're 25 per cent safer there than in the front passenger seat (which is considered the most dangerous place in any vehicle).

Garfield says a great perk of his job is the satisfaction he gets educating parents on how to keep their children safe while driving.

"That makes me feel good at the end of the day," he says. "I'll never change the world, but maybe I've saved a life."

Using an infant toddler car seat

• The safest place for a child car seat is in the center of the rear seat
  
• Babies up to nine kilograms must be in a seat that faces the rear. Rear-facing infant restraints should not be placed facing fold-up armrests, nor the space between two bucket seats
  
• A rear-facing infant car seat cannot be tethered
  
• A toddler car seat should be forward facing in the centre of the rear seat, unless you must use two car seats. Then they could be side by side if they can be adequately secured by the car seat belts and tether straps
  
• When using both an infant or toddler car seat, secure the harness over the shoulders so that only one or two fingers can fit between it and the child's collarbone
  
• Make sure the straps of the harness are flat and untwisted
  
• Position the harness retainer clip at armpit level and place rolled towels or receiving blankets on each side of the baby if extra support is needed
  
• If it's cold, then cover the harnessed baby with blankets. Do not wrap the baby blankets before harnessing
  
• Check and pull the seat belt as tightly as possible and, if using a continuous motion lap and shoulder belt, apply the seat belt locking clip
  
• Booster seats are recommended for children between 40 and 60 lbs in order to make the seat belt fit properly. Transport Canada now recommends that children under 12 always sit in the back seat, ESPECIALLY if the vehicle has passenger side airbags
  
• The latest Transport Canada survey of car seat usage reveals that less than half of the parents using children's car seats are actually following the directions correctly. Unintentional misuse can put a child at risk of injury or death each time they ride in the car

Mistakes to avoid