VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Every year nearly a dozen children are killed in this province because they’re not wearing a proper seat belt.

The BCAA dubbed June as Child Passenger Safety Month, hoping to educate parents on booster seat safety.

Transport Canada recently introduced new child restraint system and booster seat laws, but not all parents are following the rules.

The new regulations use the most up-to-date technology available for testing requirements. The new laws also mean kids between five and nine have to be in a booster seat, but about a third of them aren’t.

Rule of thumb is if your child can bend their knees properly, then they don’t need to be in a booster seat.

Allan Lamb with BCAA says he’s also seeing parents trying to save money at the expense of their child’s safety.

“Never buy a safety seat from a garage sale. If a safety seat has been involved in a crash, it may be invisible but the infrastructure of the seat may have been compromised,” explains Lamb.

He adds it’s illegal to buy a child seat outside of Canada as different countries have different safety laws.

“It’s tempting to go down and save $30 or $20 on a safety seat in the US, but it is illegal to do that and a lot of people aren’t aware of that.”

In BC, car accidents are one of the leading causes of accidental deaths among children. ICBC says an average of 90 people are killed each year as a result of not being properly restrained in a vehicle, and about eight of those are under the age of twelve.