Child car seat event wants to save lives

The California Highway Patrol said the family car might be a dangerous place for a child.

CHP Officer Fernando Alvarez said, “There are a lot of accidents that occur when children either get ejected from the vehicle with the car seat because it wasn’t properly installed.”

Recent studies by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration report that car crashes are the leading cause of death for kids three to fourteen.

“We do see that quite a bit unfortunately,” said Alvarez.

The CHP, Imperial County Health Department, and First Five Imperial gave free child safety seat inspections on Saturday morning at Imperial Valley Mall.

“We first inspect the car seats to insure that there is not some sort of safety issue, either a belt, a buckle or something, or if the seat is expired. The, if it is, and if we do have that particular car seat, then we do exchange it,” Alvarez said.

Certified technicians told parents how to properly select and use a child safety seat.

“First of all, I do notice that the installation is incorrect. It’s not that the people don’t care, it’s that they don’t know. So, first of all, we educate the public to let them know how to actually install it, and once we do that, then we go further to see if they actually need a replacement,” Alvarez said.

The technicians recommend buying new car seats, never used ones.

“If you purchase car seats second hand, you never know the history of this particular car seat. It could be expired, or it could be defective, it could’ve been involved in an accident,” Alvarez said.

CHP said over a hundred families made their cars safer for their kids at the third annual car seat event.

Anyone wishing to have their child car seat inspected can go to their local CHP office.