Where in your vehicle should a rear-facing child sit?

The center of the back seat is statistically the safest place in the car, since passengers in that seat can never take a direct hit. With only one child, it's ideal to place the car seat in the center (note that the center of most vehicles does not feature the LATCH system) as long as the car seat can be properly installed in the center. Since the center is often the narrowest position in the car, the footprint of some car seats is often too wide to fit securely in the center seat.

If placing the rear-facing car seat on the side, there is no safety difference between the two sides, although with increasing reports of front seats over-reclining in a crash, it may be safest 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 that 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 simply by virture of being rear-facing, so the forward-facing child should get the safer position, i.e. the center seat.