Articles labeled: seat belts

A baby was killed and two other children were injured when the SUV they were riding in lost control and flipped. The real tragedy is that this death could have been avoided — police investigating the scene stated that the infant was not restrained in a car seat.

Erin Kinnard Thompson of the Bernalillo County Sheriff�s Office reports that a SUV rolled over at about 6:30 a.m. Officials initially said that nine people were in the SUV but later revised that to seven. It’s believed that all seven were related and on a trip from Texas to California.

Investigators say that it appears that a 16-year-old girl was behind the wheel of the vehicle and veered from one lane into another, hit the rumble strip, overcorrected and lost control of the SUV.

Wow, the press is really reaching to dig up dirt on Miley Cyrus now. Apparently Ms. Cyrus and her father, Billy Ray, are seen riding in the back seat of a Range Rover in her Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert movie. And get this — they weren’t wearing seat belts!! For shame! Forty lashes for the Cyrus family. While of course we are strong advocates for wearing seat belts, but is this really something to freak out about? Does anyone think the screaming tweens in the audience even noticed?

Billy Ray Cyrus says he and his daughter, the “Hannah Montana” actress Miley Cyrus, simply forgot to buckle up for one of their scenes in their new hit movie.

“We got caught up in the moment of filming, and we made a mistake and forgot to buckle our seat belts,” the country music star said Wednesday on People magazine’s Web site. “Seat belt safety is extremely important.”

Don Mays, the director of product safety at Consumers Union, which publishes Yonkers-based Consumer Reports, said Wednesday, “We applaud the Cyrus family for recognizing that wearing seat belts in rear seats is essential.”

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has come up with a new 5-star ratings system to help parents make a more informed choice as to which car seat is easiest for parents to properly install. In other words, a 1-star car seat will require a degree from MIT, while the 5-star is perfect for those with the hand coordination of a lobster, like us. Hopefully this will have some influence on car seat manufacturers to make them all easy to put in to stay competitive, as we don’t see too many parents having a hard time answering the question, “Hmmm, should I get the 2-star car seat that will take an hour to get in and out of the minivan, or the 5-star one that take 30 seconds?”

Regulators hope to address confusion among parents over the wide variety of seats and installation methods.

Using a five-star rating system, the new approach will judge safety seats by the ease with which the seats can be used by parents.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says seven in 10 child safety seats are either the wrong size of misused. That reduces the seats’ ability to protect kids in a crash.

You can view the new guidelines at the NHTSA website.