Child Safety Seats to Be Rated by U.S.

The government will begin rating child safety seats so parents know which models are easiest to properly install and use.

Ratings made available next year will grade seats on five factors: whether the seat requires assembly; clarity of the labels attached to the seat; clarity of written instructions; ease of installation; and ease of correctly securing a child into the seat.

The information will be available at www.nhtsa.dot.gov -- the Web site of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration -- and in a brochure people can request from the agency.

The agency also said Thursday that it will begin a pilot program to evaluate how well different vehicles and car seats protect children in a crash.

The agency says 80% of car seats are incorrectly installed, leading to the deaths of 68 children and injuries to 874 others each year.