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Redwood Area Hospital
| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FROM: Shelly Pauling,
Education & Communications Manager
RE: Child Passenger Safety Week
DATE: February 9, 2007
Redwood Area Hospital Reminds Parents of Importance of
Child Passenger Safety
Redwood Falls, MN.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
(NHTSA), approximately 7,500 lives have been saved by the proper
use of child restraints during the past 20 years. Yet, motor
vehicle crashes still remain the number one killer of children
ages 4 to 14 in America. The reason? Too often it is the
improper use or non-use of child safety seats and booster seats.
In 2005, an average of five children ages 14 and younger were
killed and 640 were injured in motor vehicle crashes every
single day.
That’s why the Redwood Area Hospital is joining with NHTSA and
other state and local leaders around Valentine’s Day this year
to commemorate Child Passenger Safety Week Feb. 11-17, 2007.
While 98 percent of America’s infants and 93 percent of children
ages 1 to 3 are regularly restrained, not enough children ages 4
through 8 are restrained properly for their size and age. Only
10 to 20 percent of children ages 4 through 8 who should be
using booster seats to protect them are actually in them. But
children ages 4 to 8 who are placed in booster seats are 59
percent less likely to be injured in a car crash than children
who are restrained only by a seat belt.
As children grow, how they need to be secured in a car, truck,
van or SUV changes. “SUV’s and trucks pose an even greater risk
to children as the seats are typically larger than the seats
found in cars and vans. What we have found is that children may
need to be kept in a booster seat longer when riding in an SUV
or truck; past the 4’9” and 80 pound marks,” stated Shelly
Pauling, Education & Communications Manager & Senior Car Seat
Technician at the Redwood Area Hospital. Also, when you’re an
expectant mother, it’s important to always wear your seat belt
to protect you and your unborn child. Wear the lap belt across
your hips and below your belly with the shoulder belt across
your chest. Once your child is born, be a role model and
continue to buckle up, every trip, every time.
For maximum child passenger safety, parents and caregivers
simply need to remember and follow the 4 Steps for Kids:
1) For the best possible protection keep infants in the back
seat, in rear-facing child safety seats, as long as possible up
to the height or weight limit of the particular seat. At a
minimum, keep infants rear-facing until a minimum of age 1 and
at least 20 pounds;
2) When children outgrow their rear-facing seats (at a minimum
age 1 and at least 20 pounds) they should ride in forward-facing
child safety seats, in the back seat, until they reach the upper
weight or height limit of the particular seat (usually around
age 4 and 40 pounds);
3) Once children outgrow their forward-facing seat (usually
around age 4 and 40 pounds), they should ride in booster seats,
in the back seat, until the vehicle seat belts fit properly.
Seat belts fit properly when the lap belt lays across the upper
thighs and the shoulder belt fits across the chest (usually at
age 8 or when they are 4’9” tall);
4) When children outgrow their booster seats, (usually at age 8
or when they are 4’9” tall) they can use the adult seat belt in
the back seat, if it fits properly (lap belt lays across the
upper thighs and the shoulder belt across the chest).
This year, during Child Passenger Safety Week, please remember
that if your children are under 4’9”, they need to be in a
booster seat. What better way to show you love them on
Valentine’s Day than to make sure they are secured properly? It
might actually save your child’s life.
For more information about Child Passenger Safety Week and the
proper use of booster seats, please visit
www.BoosterSeat.gov,
www.SaferCar.gov or
www.SeatCheck.org.
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