Where in the vehicle should a forward-facing child sit?

The center of the back seat is statistically the safest place in the car, as you can never take a direct hit there. If you have only one child, it is safer to place the car seat in the center as long as the car seat can be properly secured in this position. Please note that the center rear seat of most vehicles does not use the LATCH system.

Since the center is often the narrowest position in the car, the footprint of some car seats may be too wide to fit in the center. If you cannot properly secure your car seat in the center position, place it on either side. There is no safety difference between the two sides, although with increasing reports of front seats over-reclining in a crash, it might be best to leave the position behind the driver open if possible.

If you have two children, things become more complicated. If you would like to place both children next to each other (note, many cars will not accomodate two car seats properly installed side by side) it is safer to have the forward-facing child in the center and the rear-facing baby on the side. This is because the rear-facing child is safer than anyone else in the car by virture of being rear-facing, so we give the forward-facing child the safer position, i.e. the center.