| "Child Passenger Safety Week" offers free clinics on buckling up |
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| ODOT News |
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Sept. 14, 2010
For more information, contact Shelley Snow (503) 986-3438 or Carla Levinski (503) 986-4199
Sept. 19 – 25 is national "Child Passenger Safety Week" and safety advocates in Oregon say that caregivers can learn tips this week that could someday save a life.
"We recently heard from a couple that was involved in a head-on crash, and their baby was buckled up correctly in the back seat in his child safety seat. He was a little sore from the incident, but both he and the parents survived, uninjured," said Carla Levinski, Occupant Protection Program manager for the Oregon Department of Transportation.
In Oregon, more than 500 volunteer Child Passenger Safety technicians teach people how to select and correctly use child safety seats and booster seats. During CPS Week, there are more than two dozen clinics scheduled around the state, and throughout the year, local fire, police, health organizations and others host free "check up" events focused on child passenger safety. A list of events is updated weekly and available online at www.childsafetyseat.org.
Statistics from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration show that in motor vehicle crashes, child safety seats reduce the risk of fatal injury by 71 percent for infants and 54 percent for toddlers. The proper booster seat reduces the risk by 59 percent (according to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia).
"Securing children properly in size-appropriate child safety seats – in the back seat of the vehicle – is the most effective thing parents and caregivers can do to protect them in the event of a crash," Levinski said. In 2009, only half of Oregon’s 988 children under age eight who were injured in crashes were properly secured in child seats or boosters. "Our local car seat programs are working hard to change those statistics."
As a reminder, Oregon law requires the following:
- A child weighing less than 40 pounds must be restrained in a child safety seat.
- A child under one year of age and weighing less than twenty pounds must be restrained in a child seat, rear facing.
- A child over forty pounds but under age eight or less than 4’ 9" tall must be restrained in a booster seat that elevates them so the lap/shoulder belts fit correctly.
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