Brookfield PD Issues Warning About Child Car Seats in Winter

BROOKFIELD, CT —The police are cautioning residents not to over-dress children before placing them into car seats this winter.

Winter coats, blankets and thicker wardrobe items prevent the harness straps of the car seat from tightening enough to effectively protect the child, police warned in a social media post..

Through a link to the car seat safety site SafeRide4Kids.com, the police provide the following guidelines to ensure that a child’s coat is not too big to wear under their harness:

• Put the coat on the child, sit them in the child seat and fasten the harness. Tighten the harness until you can no longer pinch any of the harness webbing with your thumb and forefinger
• Without loosening the harness, remove the child from the child seat,
• Take the coat off and put the child back in the car seat and buckle the harness straps, which are still adjusted as they were when he was wearing the coat.
• If you can now pinch the webbing between your thumb and forefinger then the coat is too bulky to be worn under the harness.

The police are reminding residents that their ranks now include six fully certified car seat technicians, and encourage caregivers confused about the correct carseat procedures to call the car seat phoneline at at 203-740-4192 or email CarSeats@BrookfieldCT.gov.

Image via Shutterstock