At various time throughout the year, local community agencies will hold car seat inspections to ensure the safety of the children riding in them. What inspectors find is that four out of five seats are installed incorrectly, along with various other errors. Our Bill Mich has some tips and reminders for parents with young passengers.

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STEUBEN COUNTY, N.Y. -- Any child car seat technician can give out some simple safety facts that some people may not be aware of.

"Children should be riding rear facing up to two years of age or the maximum weight of their seat," said Beverly Butts, the Steuben County Public Health Education Coordinator.

New York State law also says a child must be in some type of car seat up until their eighth birthday. But these safety facts aren't the only thing some parents don't know. Installing a car seat properly and understanding its functions are some things health officials say many parents don't do.

"Many parents never read the manual, they don't understand what some of the rules and best practices about car safety. So it is always wise to use the car seat safety technicians in your county," said Butts.

Those technicians make themselves available throughout the year at various child car seat safety checks. They will properly install the seat with the child inside so it is fitted correctly, and ensure the seat is has not expired and even in some cases, replace it.

"It is very rare that a parent will come to a car seat event and us not find something. That's part of our training. We were trained to find as many of the errors in the installation as possible. We do find some really scary situations," Butts said.

To avoid those scary situations, officials recommend attending a safety check. It is opportunity for parents to ensure that their kids are safer when they are leaving the event than when they arrived.

In Steuben County, the next car seat safety check will be held October 13th at the K-Mart in Bath.