Children are some of the most precious cargo, and this week is Child Passenger Safety Week, so it’s a good time to check your car seats. Car crashes are a leading cause of death for children, according to the state Department of Transportation.
Here’s how to ensure vehicle safety for children:
- Check the car seat to see if it is the right size.
Up until children are at least two years old, they should be in rear-facing car seats. As children grow, make sure they are under the weight limit for each car seat.
- Make sure your car seat is tightly installed. Most car seats have a latch system or they can use the car’s seatbelt.
It only needs one attachment system.
- Ensure the car seat fits in your car properly.
Not all car seats fit each vehicle.
“The injuries that can occur if a child is not properly restrained are exponential compared to an accident where the child is properly restrained,” said Kathleen Kruger, a deputy with the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office. “So with the right car seat — which means it fits the child, it fits in the seat, the parent is using it properly — those three components can reduce the injuries to a child.”
There is an event to get your Car Seat Check at the Walmart on West Genesee Street in Camillus from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. The Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office, Camillus Police Department and New York State Police are working together to make sure children are safe in the car. No appointment is necessary, but they do recommend bringing your children with you, so they can check to make sure they’re secured properly.
“We want them to leave our car seat events with some education and some knowledge and some confidence to be able to re-create what we did,” said Kruger. “So if they can leave, and then they have to pull the seat out, and they can now do what we did, and ‘oh, I remember this trick the officer showed me’ and they can do it, that’s great for us.”
