A traffic monitoring effort by the police and the Finnish Road Safety Council last month found eight percent of children in vehicles were not wearing safety belts or properly secured in child seats.
The joint traffic inspections were carried out at seven locations near daycare centres at the end of September, according to a council press release on Thursday.
Even though the vast majority of kids were found to be safely secured during the checks, the council said the minority that were not properly buckled up is concerning.
The majority of drivers with children in their cars were doing so safely, but the inspections also found serious shortfalls and deficiencies in the condition of the child seats — or how the kids were secured.
"I don't understand whether it's indifference or thoughtlessness, but when an accident happens, the price is high. If they are not secured in a child seat, sudden braking can be fatal for a child. A child has the right to travel safely," the council's communications chief Eini Karvonen said in the release.
Traffic laws state that children riding in vehicles must be properly secured in child seats until they are at least 135cm tall. The law also says that kids under the age of three are not permitted to travel in passenger cars, vans or trucks without being appropriately secured.
The council's recommendations are even stricter. It says the safest way for children to travel in cars is in rear-facing child seats.
It also advises that kids should use the seats for as long as possible, but at least until the age of four — and have grown to at least 150cm tall.
