Using Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children
 WARNING: Do not attach two child safety restraints to the same anchor. In a crash, one anchor may not be strong enough to hold two child safety restraint attachments and may break, causing serious injury or death. WARNING: Depending on where you secure a child restraint, and depending on the child restraint design, you may block access to certain seatbelt buckle assemblies and LATCH lower anchors, rendering those features potentially unusable. To avoid risk of injury, make sure occupants only use seating positions where they are able to be properly restrained. |
The Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children (LATCH) system has three vehicle anchor points:
- Two lower anchors where the vehicle seat backrest and seat cushion meet, called the seat bight.
- One top tether anchor behind that seating position.
LATCH compatible child restraints have two rigid or webbing mounted attachments. These attachments connect to the two lower anchors at the LATCH equipped seating positions in your vehicle. This type of attachment method eliminates the need to use seatbelts to attach the child restraint.
However, you can still use the seatbelt to attach the child restraint if the lower anchors are not used. For forward-facing child restraints, you must also attach the top tether strap to the proper top tether anchor if a top tether strap has been provided with your child restraint.
Follow the instructions later in this chapter on attaching child restraints with tether straps.
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