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The week of September 16th is National Child Passenger Safety Week. KSMU’s Melanie Foehrweiser has more.
Captain Tim Hull is the director of the Missouri State Highway Patrol’s Public Information Education Division.
“The purpose of the National Child Passenger Safety Week is to bring awareness to the public of how important it is that make sure that you do have your children safely secured in a child restraint seat or a booster seat when you’re traveling in a car or a truck.”
Missouri law requires all kids under the age of four to be in an appropriate child restraint seat. But there are laws for kids over four as well.
“The law that went into effect just a few years ago requires children ages 4 to 8 who weigh at least 40 pounds but less than 80 and are under four foot nine to be secured in a passenger restraint system or booster seat appropriate for that child,” says Hull.
The law also requires kids ages eight to 15 to wear a seatbelt at all times.
But Daphne Greenlee, the Safe Kids Coordinator at Mercy Springfield, says just because a child turns eight doesn’t mean he or she is ready to be out of a booster seat. Greenlee says her organization uses four stages.
“It starts out with rear facing car seats. And this is something new that we’ve talked about in the last couple years, that they’re recommending that they stay rear facing until they’re two years old or until they max out the rear facing requirements of the larger car seats that are designed for rear facing.”
Greenlee says rear facing seats are the safest child safety seats. The next stage is a front facing safety seat with a harness, followed by a booster seat, and finally, the seatbelt alone. Experts recommend that kids stay in a booster seat until they are four foot, nine inches tall.
Again, Daphne Greenlee.
“It’s really important for parents to really set the limits and say, ‘This isn’t optional. We’re going to stay in this seat, this is the only way you’re going to ride. We’re not going to leave this driveway until everybody’s buckled in and everybody’s wearing the seatbelt correctly.’”
But not everyone follows these laws and recommendations.
In 2011, 12 kids under the age of eight in Missouri were killed in crashes, and over 1,700 others were injured, according to the Highway Patrol.
State troopers also issued more than 1,800 citations for failing to obey the child restraint laws last year. Hull says there is one problem he sees often that parents might not even be aware of.
“Believe it or not the most common thing we see with about 90 to 95 percent of child passenger restraint violations is basically the child restraint seat itself is not properly fastened into the vehicle; into the seatbelt system.”
While National Child Passenger Safety Week is aimed at raising awareness of child safety, Hull says it’s important for everyone to wear seatbelts.
The law in Missouri requires all front seat passengers to wear a seatbelt, as well as anyone under 18 who is driving or riding in a truck.
Fatality crashes in Missouri are up 11 percent in 2012 compared to the same time last year, and 62 percent of those killed so far in 2012 were not wearing their seat belts.
Anyone who needs help putting in a car seat can call their nearest state trooper headquarters and set up an appointment. If you can’t afford a car seat, Safe Kids has a program that can help. For more information about this program, call the Safety Hotline at 820-7233.
Safe Kids will also host National Seat Check Saturday as part of the Safety Week. That event will be held Saturday, September 22ndin the Kohl’s parking lot. Seat check technicians will be on hand to answer questions and give tips. The event will run from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m.
For KSMU News, I’m Melanie Foehrweiser.