road to safety whenin and arounda car can beeasierif you take these steps: What You Can Do First, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), you should look for a car with these vehiclesafety features: + Rear-view cameras Interior trunkrelease + Side-impactair bags + Advancedfrontalair bags + Push-down/pull-up window switches + Automatic doorlocks. Next, the NHTSAsays, you should always rememberto: 1. Use a car seat for every trip—even when yourejust going downthestreet. Select the car seat based on yourchild’s age andsize, and alwaysfollow the manufacturer’s directions. Make sure it’s com- patible with your vehicle by checking the car seat manufacturer's instructions. 2. Keep kids in the backseatat least through age 12. 3. Tell children notto play around vehicles. Before getting into a vehicle, check aroundandbehindit, as well as the surroundingarea, to ensure nochildren are present. 4, Buckle and lock any unusedseat belts to keep kids from getting tangled up in them. 5. Neverleave a child unattended in. a vehicle, no matter how shortthe stop, or what the weather is, evenif the win- dows are cracked. The car can heat up very quickly in almost all weather con- ditions. Even with moderate outside temperatures in the mid-60s,a vehicle's interior can quickly heat up to more than 110 F.In addition,if the ignition is on orthe keysarein theignition,children can accidentally cause the vehicle toroll or even drive away. It’s never a goodideato leave child alone ina car. What Can Help To prevent precious cargo from being left in cars, one company has comeup with an ingenious Rear Door Alert (RDA) technology. An industry first, the system was developed by two mothers whoarealso engineersat Nissan. It monitors when the rear door is opened and closed before andafter the vehicle is in motion. The system respondswitha seriesofnotificationsif a rear doorwasusedpriorto a trip but was not reopened after the trip. Once the vehicle is in park andtheignition is turnedoff, the system willfirst display a notification in the instrument panel and progresses to distinctive chirps of the horn to reminddriversto check the backseat. Nissan's RDA is easy to configure and can be temporarily or permanently turned off through a menuinthe clus- ter display. Alreadyavailable in the Nissan Pathfinder, for model year 2019, RDA will be standard equipment on eight other Nissan cars, including the best-selling Rogueandtheall-new Altima. By model year 2022, it will be standard on all the company’s four-doortrucks, sedans and SUVs. Learn More Forfurther information, go to www. NissanUSA.com and www.NHTSA.gov. Editors’ Note: While this article can be ofinterest to anyone, it may be particularly useful to Californians.
