The trunk is finally packed, the kids are buckled in, you’ve gone back twice for things you forgot, you’ve squished yourself into the back seat next to your 3-year-old’s behemoth of a car seat. The driver is asking if you’re finally ready to go. You give the go-head, figuring you’ll buckle in after you’ve rifled through your bag for a snack or grabbed that favorite toy from the back, but then you never do. Sound familiar? Well, it’s common, and it’s a huge danger not just to yourself but to every other person in the car, including the kids you’ve so carefully secured.

“If you have an unbelted person in the backseat, the other people in the car who are belted are two to four times more likely to die in a crash,” says Dr. Baer. And when you look at the physics, it makes sense. A typical 30-mile-an-hour crash may have 20-25 Gs, (G is the force of gravity), which means the weight of a 100-pound person would be magnified 20-25 times. If you were hit by that person, it would be equivalent to being slammed by someone who weighs 2,000 to 2,500 pounds.

Fix: Be a good example to your kids, whether you’re riding in the front or back seat. The car doesn’t move until EVERYONE is belted in.