Check your car seat limits for safety. Children grow so fast and they can easily outgrow car seats faster than parents realize. (Dreamstime/TNS)
Reminding parents and caregivers to make sure children are properly secured in vehicles is the goal of this year’s Child Passenger Safety Week.
The annual safety week runs this year from Sept. 15-21, and the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute is encouraging people to take the time to make sure their children are properly secured in an appropriate car seat or booster seat. The week ends today with a national car seat education event known as “National Car Seat Check Saturday.”
Statistics show that nearly 1 out of every 5 children aged 4 or younger who died in crashes from 2018-2022 were unrestrained. ICJI officials want caregivers to know that it’s never safe to allow a child to ride in a passenger vehicle unrestrained, no matter how short the trip or how big the vehicle is, according to the news release.
When it comes to child passengers, there is a right seat for every age and developmental stage. No matter what the stage is, a certified Child Passenger Safety Technician can put parents’ minds at ease by discussing correct car seat selection and showing them how to correctly install that seat in their vehicle, the news release says.
Throughout the week, organizations across the state have hosted child passenger safety events. During these events, certified Child Passenger Safety Technicians will check car seats, let caregivers know if their children are in the right seats for their ages and sizes, and show them how to install the right seats correctly, according to the news release.
Safety checks are available year-round and typically take 20-30 minutes. Those visits can be conducted at one of Indiana’s many fitting stations, which can be found by visiting: on.in.gov/SafeKids.
Johnson County stations include Firefily Children & Family Alliance in New Whiteland, the Franklin Police Department, three White River Township Fire Department stations and the Clark-Pleasant Police Department.
