New Child’s Arrival Sets Off Game of Musical Car Seats

Dear Street Smart:

I have a question for which there may be no answer. I have a 2-year-old who has always ridden in his car seat in the center of the back seat.

A new baby will be arriving in a few weeks, and I presume she should sit in the center. Where should the 2-year-old go?

Are there any statistics about whether there are more accidents that affect the driver’s side versus the passenger side? If not, on which side of the back seat do you or your experts think he should be?

Teri Alpert

Laguna Hills

Congratulations on your impending arrival! And kudos for investigating the correct way to seat your children safely.

The center of the back seat is the safest place in the car. But neither the left nor right side is safer than the other, said Cheryl Kim, senior program consultant for SafetyBeltSafe U.S.A. However, there are considerations.

Many mothers prefer to have their newborns in the front passenger seat so they can monitor them, Kim said. That’s OK, as long as the car is not equipped with a passenger-side air bag and as long as the safety seat and the baby are facing the rear of the car.

As a matter of fact, for the first year, no matter where baby is located in the car, she and her infant safety seat should face the rear of the car, Kim said. In a collision, the safety seat can act as a shield and offer head, neck and spine protection.

Unfortunately, manufacturers do not make safety seats that can be installed facing the rear for children who have outgrown their infant seats.

More important than which side of the car your child sits in is the correct installation and use of her safety seat, Kim said. According to the organization, a nonprofit group, 90% of the child safety seats in this country are used improperly.

Reading the safety seat instruction booklet carefully cover to cover is essential, Kim said. Reading your vehicle’s owner manual and being aware of the incompatibility problems between child safety seats and automatic or passive safety belts is equally important, she said.

For any further questions or child safety seat concerns, you can call SafetyBeltSafe U.S.A. at 1-800-745-SAFE. You can also write to them at P.O. Box 553, Altadena, Calif. 91003.

Dear Street Smart:

A problem that has bothered me for several months is the bottleneck on Lake Forest Drive west of Interstate 5. The road narrows from three lanes to one lane for maybe 150 feet. Do you think you could prevail on the powers that be to widen this narrow section?

David J. Buddhue

Laguna Beach

I tried to prevail, but to no avail. The economic slump of recent years has put this widening project on the back burner indefinitely.

Currently, as you exit the freeway and turn right onto Lake Forest Drive, there are three lanes that pare down to two lanes, then one lane, and swell to four lanes as you approach the Moulton Parkway intersection, said Ignacio Ochoa, county traffic engineer.

The city of Irvine did create plans to widen Lake Forest Drive to four lanes, and county officials did review and approve them, Ochoa said. Irvine was ready to roll on this project except for one tiny snag: funding. Ed Rozok, senior project engineer for the city, said an assessment district still needs to be formed and it is not known when that will happen.

The Irvine Co., which proposed to develop property surrounding Lake Forest Drive for commercial and light industrial uses, was going to form the assessment district and get the necessary funding by selling bonds, Rozok said. Before the economy took a nose dive a few years ago, the plans were being vigorously pursued, but now they have just stopped, he said.

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The Measure M Citizens Oversight Committee will hold its annual public hearing at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Orange County Transportation Authority office, Room 103, 550 S. Main St., Orange. The committee monitors expenditures of income from the half-cent sales tax for transportation projects.

For more information on the public hearing, call Jill Terry at OCTA Community Relations at 714-560-5725.

Street Smart appears Mondays in The Times Orange County Edition. Readers are invited to submit comments and questions about traffic, commuting and what makes it difficult to get around in Orange County. Please write to Caroline Lemke, c/o Street Smart, The Times Orange County, P.O. Box 2008, Costa Mesa, Calif. 92626.