What are the basic car safety rules that every child should learn?
You want to have some general principals that you use when you have a child around in the car. One of the things to realise is you don't want children to think of a motor vehicle as a place to play. We have very rigid rules and we do several safety seat check ups. We don't even let children sit with their parents in the front seat during the time that we're looking at their safety seats, because we really don't want children in the front seat. You sometimes see parents who are playing with their children; sitting in front of the steering wheel and letting them play with the steering wheel. So, if a child gets loose in a situation like this, that's the first thing they're going to try to do. I also wouldn't suggest having children play with the keys to the car. Again, this gives them the idea that this is something that connects with a car, and they want to be like parents. They want to do what you do. Some of the incidents with children that have gotten into vehicles with out their parents' permission are very frightening, and some have been fatal. What happens is that the children some times are able to get the car started, either by releasing a break, or in a few cases they've actually turned the key and gotten the car going. When it starts to move is they oftentimes become frightened and they get out of the car, and when they do the car itself runs into them. Also, there have been children who have killed other children who were in the vicinity, because they got the car moving.
