12 September 2009

PSA: Child Passenger Safety week

Sorry, this post is not sarcastic, for once. It's an actual Public Service Announcement.

I wanted to let everyone know it's National Seat Check Saturday today in America, and over the coming week the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is trying to raise awareness of the subpar safety level of children in our cars.

I normally don't do this kind of thing, but since I've already spent roughly 10% of my predicted lifespan installing, uninstalling, and reinstalling carseats, I consider myself a bit of an aficionado, and the subject is near and dear to my heart.

I've seen some pretty ridiculous "installations" in other people's cars in the past, and it always makes me itch to offer help or suggestions for the sake of the kids. It can't hurt to have someone check to make sure you're installing your carseats correctly, right?

Here's a page where you can find the carseat inspection stations in your area: http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/CPS/CPSfitting/index.cfm

And here's a little video they made for this event:

7 comments:

unmitigated me said...

I know in Michigan, you can stop at any idle firestation and the firemen will be happy to check your seats, free of charge.

Nicely done, sir.

Anonymous said...

I had no idea...but we don't exactly have any kids, either...

Will have to remember this when one such child pops out.

Unknown said...

Great post! I'm linking to it (again :))...I remember standing at the curb at the airport last time we flew and this car pulled up and had a forward facing infant seat in it...the bucket kind...with a VERY new baby.

I pointed out to the driver that it was installed backward and they just kind of looked at me. I reiterated "You have your carseat in your car backward. If you get in an accident, your baby could be hurt really bad, or..." they looked at me with a blank stare...I was a little surprised they didn't ask more questions because I would have offered to do it for them, but they didn't seem to care. CRAZY!

Irrational Dad said...

I put a carseat in the wife's Blazer last year. I found out six months later that the Blazer is one of the few vehicles that you're NOT supposed to use the center of the back seat. I felt like a dufus, and quickly fixed the mistake.

Mrs. B. Roth said...

My 3 yo went thru a phase when he thought it was hilarious to reach over and unbuckle his sisters car seat from the car. She seemed to be all latched in, but one abrupt stop made me aware of the situation. Especially if you have a little jokester in the family, make sure the car seat is clicked in every single time.

Anonymous said...

I'm still just stunned at the lack of sarcasm!

Kali said...

I never knew there were inspection stations. Good to know. Reading this post, I got a flashback from the 70's of my sister, brother and I rolling around in the backseat of their Chevrolet sans belts!