Child safety and car seat inspection event scheduled for May 7

Flickr user johnsoax

No need to be unsure about whether your child may be unsafe in your car, on Saturday, May 7, the Beaufort County EMS, in partnership with Lowcountry Safe Kids and the Beaufort Kiwanis Club, will be hosting a car seat inspection event from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Beaufort Town Center on Boundary Street near Kmart.

Here's all the details from the press release:

Parents are invited to drive into the parking lot with their children secured in their vehicle. A team of EMS certified child passenger safety technicians will inspect the seat for defects and recalls and tell parents whether their children are property secured. Parents will not be cited or penalized for any practices that require correction.

An alarming number of children die in traffic crashes each year because of improperly installed car seats, defective car seats or the lack of car seats. National statistics show that out of 37,899 child safety seat inspections; 81.6% were installed incorrectly and with each incorrect installation there was an average of three mistakes. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration child safety seats reduce the risk of death for infants in a vehicle crash by 71 percent and reduce the risk to toddlers between 1 and 4 years old by 54 percent.

Filed in