2009 Mercury Mariner Owner's Manual - Page 148

Seating and Safety Restraints 9. Attach the tether strap (if the child seat is equipped). Refer to Attaching child safety seats with tether straps later in this chapter. 10. Before placing the child in the seat, forcibly move the seat forward and back to make sure the seat is securely held in place. To check this, grab the seat at the belt path and attempt to move it side to side and forward and back. There should be no more than one inch (2.5 cm) of movement for proper installation. 11. Ford recommends checking with a NHTSA Certified Child Passenger Safety Technician (CPST) to make certain the child restraint is properly installed. Attaching child safety seats with LATCH (Lower Anchors and Tethers for CHildren) attachments The LATCH system is composed of three vehicle anchor points: two (2) lower anchors located where the vehicle seat back and seat cushion meet (called the "seat bight") and one (1) top tether anchor located behind that seating position. LATCH compatible child safety seats have two rigid or webbing mounted attachments that 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 safety belts to attach the child seat, however the safety belt can still be used to attach the child seat. For forward-facing child seats, the top tether strap must also be attached to the proper top tether anchor, if a top tether strap has been provided with your child seat. Ford Motor Company recommends the use of a child safety seat having a top tether strap. See Attaching child safety seats with tether straps and Recommendations for attaching safety restraints for children in this chapter for more information. 148 2009 Mariner (mrn) Owners Guide, 2nd Printing USA (fus)