Car Seat Check-Up Event Provides Guidance to Parents
Car seats are confusing, always have been; I suspect they always will be. I remember thirty years ago, when I installed a car seat for the first time to bring our first daughter home, the instructions looked more like a wiring diagram for a nuclear reactor than the kind a brand-new, sleep-deprived dad should have to follow. Full disclosure, I put it in wrong anyway.
Thanks to a program sponsored by Safe Kids Northeast Minnesota and the Arrive Alive Coalition, along with help from the Virginia Police Department and St. Louis County Public Health, parents don’t have to suffer alone in the effort to keep kids safe in the car.
Tuesday evening, parents brought their car seats to a car seat safety event at the Virginia Public Safety Facility, where experts checked the seats for proper height and weight, proper installation, and any recalls. Car seats were also available to parents who qualify through a grant from the State of Minnesota, funded by car seat moving violation fines.
Angie VanDuker, Arrive Alive Coalition Coordinator and an RN with Essentia Health, discussed the Office of Traffic Safety’s Toward Zero Deaths program, which develops traffic safety programs on car seat safety and teen driver safety. Elderly driver training and ATV safety were discussed. VanDuker pointed out that Northeast Minnesota is near the top of the state in ATV fatalities.
In addition to training, all fatal traffic accidents are reviewed to determine causes and identify conditions that could be changed or corrected to make area roads safer.
Additional free car seat safety days will be held at the Virginia Public Safety Facility on September 8th, October 13th, and November 10th. All classes are from 4:00-6:00.
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