Parents and caregivers feeling relieved following Saturday’s Car Seat and Booster Check event.
GOLETA, Calif.—Safety experts drove an important message home today regarding car seat safety.
Moms and caregivers at Saturday’s free car seat and booster check event are feeling relieved and secure.
It’s all a part of a partnership with the Santa Barbara County Fire Department and Cottage Hospital.
“We want to really make sure that these seats are installed properly and that families have the education they need before a crash ever happens. It's not fun trying to educate after the fact when families are either in mourning or they're stressed because their child has these severe injuries,” said Cottage Hospital Trauma Nurse Coordinator Lauren Sutherlin
Eighty percent of car seats are installed incorrectly, contributing to infant fatalities and injuries.
“One of the main mistakes that we do see at these car check events is the car seat is too loose, the harness is too loose for the child or the child is forward facing too early,” said Firefighter and Car Seat Coordinator Sam Dudley.
A loose harness can cause a child to be ejected out of the vehicle during a crash. But a tight harness can lead to suffocation.
“The seat belt can't be twisted. Otherwise, your head, like in an accident, for an example, can hit the seat belt somehow and it's twisted. So it can also probably cause some type of damage,” said 6 year old Adalyn Grace Turcios.
Safety experts say that age, weight, height, and development help determine how a child should be buckled in.
“As our children's grow, car seats change, you know? So it's like they may have it right for the newborn, but when their kid is a toddler, they might need to change their car seat around. And that's what I would be able to help them with,” said Car Seat Safety Passenger Technician Christiannah Williams-Herman.
With over 400 types of car seats, and the combination of different cars and stages of development of the kids, it can be tricky to stay up to date with optimal safety measures.
“You can have one car seat in mom's car and it goes perfectly, but then you transfer that car seat to Dad's car, and it's a completely different way of moving… it does matter to make sure that the both the car seat manual and the vehicle manual are in congruence with each other when placing the child in that car seat,” said Williams-Herman.
After a 30 hour course that culminated with Saturday’s event, 12 brand new car seat safety passenger technicians are now serving the community.
Everyone from postpartum doulas and assistant midwives to fire and hospital workers are now equipped with the tools to save the families they work with on a daily basis.
