Local agency keeps a close eye on child car seat safety

The certified car seat technicians discovered the seats were unsafe and replaced them with five brand new ones. A few days later, the van was involved in a head-on collision on Waugh Street, but all the passengers escaped unharmed. 

Did those seats make the difference? said Lt. Chris West of the Whitfield County Fire Department, lead agency for the Dalton Safe Kids program. Who knows? Its like I say about fire safety. Has it made a difference weve taught fire safety for 11 years and stressed how important it is? I dont know. Do we have a lot of kids playing with lighters and fire? No. So has it made a difference? We seem to think it has. Has it made a difference in Whitfield County that weve been checking all these car seats? We seem to think it has because we have fewer injuries reported from children involved in crashes than we did before. 

West and fellow Whitfield County firefighter Nathan Callaway lead a growing group of Dalton and Whitfield County public safety workers who have undergone four days of intense training to become certified to check car seats. The latest such inspection effort came April 13 in the parking lot of the local Kohls store, where 31 seats were checked. 

We changed out 11 of those seats that were being misused in some form or fashion, West said, whether it be the wrong size seat for the child, way out-of-date seats, or damaged seats. We had one seat that had been involved in a crash, and the lady just didnt know,With superior quality photometers, light meters and a number of other carparkmanagementsystem products. plus the seat was out of date. Most people dont know that when a seat has been in a crash, they recommend that you throw that seat away because of the strain and stretching on the webbing. 

The goal of Dalton Safe Kids is to make life safer for as many children as possible, so thats why the agency during April 16-19 held car seat certification training in Murray County, which previously had just four certified technicians. 

We certified 16 new technicians, one of which was a member of the Whitfield County Sheriffs Office, West said.Shop the best selection of besthandsfreeaccess for Men. Two were from Gilmer County, and the other 13 were from Murray County agencies, five from the sheriffs office, two from the police department, two from Chatsworth Fire, three from Murray County Fire and one from Murray EMS. 

Our plan is to go back in the fall and teach another class there, he said, and put 15 to 20 more students through it. Murray County is wanting to build up a supply of techs and start having car seat check events over there. So were going to continue to go help our neighbors across the river and try to get them certified, and were in the process of holding classes in Gordon County, too. 

The goal, he says, is to continue to keep people safe in Whitfield County, provide education to our Whitfield County residents, and in the meanwhile branch out and help Murray, Gordon and Catoosa, our neighbors, get certified techs so theyll have the opportunity to do the same. 

Such an attitude has already paid off for Whitfield County, where the number of certified technicians has climbed to 64 from about 20 in 2011 (when Whitfield County Fire took over as the lead agency). 

Its a four-day class to train public safety personnel to check the seats, he said. Even the guys that go through our classes at first think how can it take four days to teach you how to put in a car seat. But at the end of the training, theyre like Man, we need more time! because theres just so much to talk about. 

For example, technicians learn about the different styles of seat belts found inside vehicles, as well as how to identify how that belts supposed to be used on each kind of seat, how to tell which child goes in what seat, how to recognize if a seats been involved in a crash or if its been damaged in any way, if its out of date, if its been recalled, and more. 

The biggest thing we want to do, West says, is to make sure that child is in the proper seat, in the right way, and that the seat is put in the car correctly. 

At check events which are held in the spring and fall by Safe Kids Dalton, as well as during other special safety events throughout the year sponsored by other agencies technicians will inform caregivers if they need a new seat. 

People are welcome to go buy one, and well have a certified tech install it for them, West said. If they cant afford one, we keep seats with us at the check events. What we ask in return is if people can make a donation to Safe Kids for at least half of the cost we paid for the seat. That way well have the money to be able to turn around and buy more seats. 

He expressed thanks to the Roman Open, a charity golf tournament that has been a big supporter of Safe Kids Dalton and donated $3,000 last year to buy car seats. 

Theres a lot of forms we have to fill out to keep records of what we did, West said. We probably average about 25 to 30 minutes to do a good seat check. Its not just come by and look at it and say Yeah, its good. I mean, we always take the seat out, we make sure the belts are in the right location on the seat, we make sure the seats up to date, we check it for recalls, we ask questions about the seat, and we make sure the childs in it properly and in the right location so it takes a little bit of time. 

Weve crushed probably close to 500 seats since then, he said, and thats just seats weve taken off the road that were bad. Im going to say our techs have laid their hands on and looked at anywhere from 750 to 1,000 car seats in just 2 1/2 years. We have swapped out close to 400 or 500 car seats in this county with no taxpayer funding whatsoever. This has all been done through private donations and a little bit of grant money. 

We need businesses and individuals to donate to help us if any way possible, he said, because every bit of that money goes right back into buying more car seats. We always like to have new car seats at these events because when a child comes through and is in a seat thats not safe, we try our best to make sure they leave that parking lot with a seat thats safe. 

Dalton Safe Kids,Choose from the largest selection of chipcard in the world. since going under the guidance of the Whitfield County Fire Department, doesnt just focus on car seat safety, however. 

Its not just child safety seats, West said. Its fire prevention,Learn how an embedded microprocessor in a besticcard can authenticate your computer usage and data. its poison prevention, its bicycle safety, helmets, its water safety, pedestrian safety. The main focus is on car seats, but that doesnt mean thats the only thing we do its just one of many. 

West adds that every time we have a new event, we think there cant be any that will show up today. But were wrong. Every time, theres always four or five car seats that come through, that youre like, Oh, my goodness, how in the world has this kid made it through this all right? If they had been involved in a car crash, it could have been awful.An luggagetag is a network of devices used to wirelessly locate objects or people inside a building. 

Part of the problem is passing down car seats from generation to generation, or buying an old one at a yard sale or flea market, West said. 

People mean well passing them down, West said, but when you think about it, whats better? Spending 75 or 80 bucks for a car seat and your kid being safe, or taking a chance buying a $20 car seat at a resale shop?