In honor of National Seat Check Saturday, several Colorado Springs organizations came together to offer free child seat inspections for parents.
This comes on the same day a juvenile was seriously injured in a rollover crash.
Firefighters were right around the corner when it happened.
“Heard a very loud crash, walked out front of our station and noticed the rollover,” said Lt. Lucas Wardell with Colorado Springs Fire Department.
While police haven’t confirmed how old that juvenile is and whether they were in a car seat or wearing a seat-belt at the time of the incident, firefighters took it as an opportunity to send out an important reminder.
“Seat belts save lives. Make sure you wear your seat-belt,” Wardell added.
And just on the other side of town, saving lives is just what “Safe Kids colorado Springs” is trying to do.
“We have dropped child-passenger safety deaths and injuries by about 50 percent since I first started, which is just awesome,” said instructor Chris Simosky.
Nationally certified Child Passenger Safety Technicians, Safe Kids Colorado Springs, Pikes Peak YMCA, Children’s Hospital Colorado, and the Colorado Springs Police Department hosted a car seat checkup event at the Southeast & Armed Services YMCA to make sure children in Colorado Springs are riding safely in the car.
“We see an average of about 90-percent error rate and average of two to three errors per car seat when they come,” added Simosky.
She explained most children don’t outgrow their car seat until they’re 11 years old and it’s best to “keep the kids harnessed longer, [keep] them rear-faced longer, not [move] them into seat-belts until they truly fit.”
According to safety statistics, the use of a car seat can reduce the risk of death to children by 71 percent.
Once we learn more on that rollover crash from police, we’ll update you on-air and online.
