The Safe Kids Columbia initiative educates parents on basic safety tips. The initiative's coordinator, Lezlie Dahlke, said that though the focus on issues like bike, water, and fire safety, the issue of child passenger safety stands out.

Dahlke says that installing and finding the proper restraints can be difficult tasks, and even instruction manuals for car seats can be of little help.

"It does get very confusing, and instead of getting frustrated, just call, make an appointment," said Dahlke.

One mother found that a little effort saved her son's life.

Barb Brucks's husband, Arnie, was behind the wheel when he suffered a massive heart attack while their son, David, was in the back seat. The car rolled off the road near Stadium Boulevard.

Barb lost her husband that day, but she believes that the car seat saved her son.

"I feel my son was safe," Brucks explained, "because his dad made sure he was buckled in, and that he was in the back where he should've been, and in a proper restraint."

Safe Kids Columbia says the finding the proper seat is not enough to guarantee your child's safety. After choosing the correct seat and making sure it is installed properly, they recommend to use a noodle -- like the ones that kids swim with -- to make sure the seat does not move around. Noodles do not lose their shape when pressure is applied to them.

Safe Kids says that using these safety tips can reduce the risk of a child's death by more than 50 percent. That percentage has made all the difference for Brucks.

"I seriously don't know that I would have survived losing both my husband and a child," Brucks admitted. "It was just devastating as it was, and the thought of losing my son was just more than I could bear."

A new booster seat law went into effect in Missouri on August 28, 2006, requiring children who have outgrown a child safety seat to be secured in a booster seat while traveling in a motor vehicle. The fine for violating the law is $50, plus court costs.

Children eight years old or older, weighing at least 80 pounds, or measuring at least 4-foot-9 inches tall are required to be secured by a safety belt or buckled into an appropriate booster seat.