Never place an infant in a rear-facing child safety seat in the front seat of a vehicle with an active front passenger air bag.

Children age 12 and under are safest sitting properly restrained in the back seat. They should use child safety seats, booster seats or safety belts appropriate for their age and size.

To minimize injury risks, NHTSA recommends that children not lean or rest against chest-only or head/chest combination side air bags (SABs).

NHTSA has not seen any indication of risks to children from current roof-mounted head SABs.

There may be occasions when a parent or caregiver has no other option than to place a child other than an infant in a rear-facing child safety seat in the right front seat, such as:

• In a pickup truck with insufficient or no available rear seat, or
• If a parent is transporting too many children for all to ride in the back, or
• If a child with a medical condition requires monitoring, and another adult is not available to accompany the driver.

In the event there is no available rear seat and/or parents have no other option than to place a child other than an infant in a rear-facing child safety seat in a front passenger seating position, take these steps:

• Ensure the child* is properly restrained according to their age and size,
• Move the seat as far back as possible,
• Make sure the child is not leaning out of position, such as leaning forward into the deployment path of the air bag and
• Set the air bag ON-OFF switch, if available, to the OFF position.

If you must regularly transport a child in the front seat and your vehicle does not have an air bag ON-OFF switch, then you should consider getting an ON-OFF switch for the passenger frontal air bag. (See How do I get an air bag ON-OFF switch?)

When faced with having to choose which child to place in front of an air bag in the front seat, select the child that can be relied upon to remain in proper seating position. This may not necessarily be the oldest child, but the child who is restrained securely at all times.

Real world experience with children and SABs : NHTSA crash investigators actively seek out cases where SABs have deployed in crashes. 92 cases have been investigated; only 6 have involved children. There have been no moderate or serious injuries to children from SAB deployments, and only one minor injury – a skin laceration from an SAB cover. This small number of cases involves a limited number of vehicles with SABs and may not be representative of the variety of SAB systems currently available. NHTSA continues to closely monitor the real world performance of SABs involving children and adults.

To see if your vehicle’s SABs were designed to minimize risk to children, consumers should check to see if a vehicle meets the voluntary Technical Working Group (TWG) guidelines. If your vehicle does not have an “M,” you should check your owner’s manual or contact the vehicle manufacturer to find out whether your car’s SABs are safe for children.

The best way to find out what type of SAB your vehicle has is to look in your owner’s manual or to check with your dealer. NHTSA also provides this information in a searchable SAB database at www.safercar.gov; currently only model year 2004 and 2005 information is available. Earlier model year will be available shortly.