Poor. Unrestrained cargo in the bed of the pick-up can be a hazard not only to the passengers in the truck, but also to other vehicles as it can fly out of the truck during swerving and/or a crash. There is no safe place to store cargo in the passenger area of the pick-up.

Varies greatly. Some pick-ups have no back seat with others have side-facing jump seats. Still others have a back seat that has enough leg room to fit only a child, while others have more room than in many sedans.

Side facing jump seats can NEVER be used to secure a car seat or booster. Ideally no one should ever ride on a side-facing jump seat.

The pick-ups with small back seats often do not have enough room to secure a child restraint properly and/or allow enough room for a child’s head to move forward in a crash without hitting the back of the front seat.
If placing a rear-facing car seat in the back seat of a pick-up, consideration should be given to whether the baby’s head could hit the rear windshield in a crash (as a rear-facing seat will rotate toward the back of the vehicle in a rear-end crash or the rebound from a frontal crash). Using a convertible car seat (any of the Britax or the Sunshine Kids Radian) that allows you to use the top tether in the rear-facing position and securing the tether to the floor of the vehicle will prevent the child’s head from hitting the glass, because the tether will prevent the car seat from moving towards the back of the vehicle.

Children in forward-facing carseats will be adequately protected by the shell of the car seat.

Children in booster seats will usually need to use a high back booster to prevent their head from hitting the glass.

Older kids (too big for boosters) and adults are often poorly protected in pick-ups because there are often no head restraints and when there are they often do not come up high enough to protect heads and necks sufficiently.

The width of the back row is usually ample, but the leg room, and most importantly the head room, are often lacking.

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