Child Passenger Safety Week: The focus is on the little ones’ safety

IN THE TRAINING PROGRAMS, consulting work, and other professional services we provide here at Safety Solutions & Supply, we’re almost exclusively helping adults in workplace matters about occupational safety and health. This article brings things a little closer to home. It’s about the little ones — your children, grandchildren, nieces, and nephews. It’s about keeping them safe.

This week, Sept. 23-29, 2018, is Child Passenger Safety Week, and this Saturday, Sept. 29, is National Seat Check Saturday.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), vehicle crashes are a leading cause of death for children ages 1 to 13. Many times, deaths and injuries can be prevented by proper use of car seats, boosters and seat belts. On average, two children under 13 were killed per day in 2016 while riding in cars, SUVs, pickups, or vans.

The NHTSA and the Ad Council have launched a new series of public service ads (PSAs) that urge parents and caregivers to protect their child’s future at every stage of life, by making sure they secure them in the correct car seat for their age, height, and weight. You can find the PSAs here.

Additional, the NHTSA has a wealth of good information about child car seats and booster seats on its Web page here. At the top of the page is a cute photo of a seated and secured toddler with this bit of wisdom from the NHTSA: “Don’t think you know. Know you know. Find the right car seat for your child.” To do that — to find the right car seat, install it correctly, and keep your child safe — the NHTSA shares the following steps (with website links for details):

For National Seat Check Saturday, some businesses and organizations will offer free car-seat inspections, but child seat inspections are provided year-round in other locations. To find a National Seat Check Saturday event near you or to find any business that inspects proper car seat installation at any time of the year, visit here and enter your ZIP code. A Polk County search turned up three inspection locations, all of them in Lakeland.

The use of car seats, booster seats, and seat belts do save lives. In 2016, among children younger than age 5, car seats saved an estimated 328 lives, according to the NHTSA. The year before for the same age group, the number was 248 saved lives. A total of 370 children could have survived vehicle crashes in 2016 if they had been buckled up 100 percent of the time, the NHTSA reported.

Learn more about Child Passenger Safety Week online, get your car seats and booster seats inspected this week, and motor on in safety.

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