If you drive with child passengers, job one is making certain they are properly buckled in. It’s not only Minnesota law—used correctly every time, every ride, car seats save children’s lives. From Sept. 21-27, as part of 2025 National Child Passenger Safety Week, parents, grandparents and others who transport kids have special opportunities to ensure they are installing and using car seats correctly.

“During Child Passenger Safety Week, we want to make sure all Minnesotans who transport children have the information they need to correctly restrain their young passengers every trip,” said Tara Helm, Community Programs and Occupant Protection manager for the Minnesota Safety Council.

During Child Passenger Safety Week, certified Child Passenger Safety Technicians (CPSTs) across Minnesota will conduct special car seat check clinics to teach proper car seat and booster seat installation and ensure those currently in use are installed correctly. Links to these events, the year-around clinic schedule and a tool for locating a CPST by geography are also available on BuckleUpMN.

“In passenger cars, car seats reduce the risk of fatal injury by 71 percent for infants and by 54 percent for toddlers 1 to 4 years old,” said Helm. “We not only have statistics, we have real-life experiences. In June 2024, a young mother died in a crash near Lamberton, Minn. Her three young daughters survived uninjured thanks to their mother’s unwavering commitment to properly buckling them in every ride.”

From Sept. 21-27, the Minnesota Department of Public Safety’s Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) will also be coordinating a statewide seat belt and child passenger safety enforcement campaign.  The campaign seeks to influence people to follow the law, buckle up and secure their children in the correct car or booster seats. Law enforcement will cite drivers for not wearing a seat belt or using a proper car seat.

“This year, we’ve seen record compliance in seat belt usage in Minnesota, and that leads to fewer traffic deaths on our roads” said OTS Director Mike Hanson, “Imagine if everyone made that choice to buckle up, how many more lives would be saved and how many more families would be whole. That’s why our law enforcement will be conducting stops to get drivers to do the right thing.”

Minnesota law requires that all children are secured in an appropriate child restraint system (car seat or booster seat), until at least age 9 or until they’ve outgrown the booster seat and can pass the 5-Step Test, which helps caregivers determine if a child is ready to ride with the lap and shoulder belt on the vehicle seat. Additionally, all children under the age of 13 must sit in the back seat of the vehicle, if possible.

Helm said that despite laws in Minnesota and most other states, crashes remain a leading cause of death for children. In Minnesota, between 2016 and 2024 one-third of children killed or seriously injured in a crash were not properly restrained. In 2024, 11 children age 12 or under died in Minnesota motor vehicle crashes.