Protect your Children in the Car

National Seat Check Saturday” Event
Offers Free Car Seat Inspections

According to Kathryn Wesolowski, Manager of the Rainbow Injury Prevention Center, parents and caregivers should follow a few basic guidelines for determining which restraint system is best suited to protect their children in a vehicle:

• For the best possible protection keep infants in a back seat, in rear-facing child safety seats, as long as possible­up to the height or weight limit of the particular seat. At a minimum, keep infants rear-facing until at least age 1 and at least 20 pounds.
• When children outgrow their rear-facing seats, they should ride in forward-facing child safety seats, in a back seat, until they reach the upper weight or height limit of the particular seat (usually around age 4 and 40 to 80 pounds).
• Once children outgrow their forward-facing seats, they should ride in booster seats, in a back seat, until the vehicle seat belts fit properly. Seat belts fit properly when the lap belt lays across the upper thighs and the shoulder belt rests on the shoulder or collar bone (usually when the child is between 8 and 12 years old, approximately 4’9” tall and 80 to 100 pounds).
• After children fully outgrow their booster seats, they should use the adult seat belts in a back seat. The lap belt should lay across the upper thighs and the shoulder belt fits rests on the shoulder or collar bone.

Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital and the Greater Cleveland Automobile Dealers’ Association (GCADA) is urging parents and caregivers to make sure their child safety seats are properly installed in their vehicles at the Second Annual “National Seat Check Saturday” event on Saturday, September 20 at the Children’s Museum of Cleveland.

Certified child passenger safety technicians will be available to provide hands-on instruction on installing child safety seats from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm. Age and weight-appropriate children will receive a free booster seat, courtesy of Kohl’s Cares for Kids (while supplies last).

Inspections will take place in the Museum’s parking lot. Reservations are not required. Each child in attendance will also receive a free “Pause to Click” backseat auto organizer courtesy of Kohl’s.

“It’s the responsibility of every single parent and caregiver to make sure their children are safely restrained – every trip, every time,” said Gary Adams, President of the Greater Cleveland Automobile Dealers’ Association. “We are urging everyone to get their child safety seats inspected. When it comes to the automobile safety of a child, there is no room for mistakes.”

According to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration research, 8,325 lives of children under age 5 have been saved by the proper use of child restraints during the past 30 years. In 2006, among children under 5, an estimated 425 lives were saved by child restraint use.

Child Passenger Safety Week runs from September 21 through 27. Safe Kids Buckle Up, the child passenger safety program of Safe Kids USA in partnership with General Motors and Chevrolet, holds child safety seat checkups and other vehicle safety events throughout the year.

Throughout Greater Cleveland, Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital and GCADA are teaming up with local automobile dealerships to provide car seat check-ups throughout the month of September.

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