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Community Corner

Child Safety Seat Inspection

With New Recommendations, Crystal Lake Police Department, AAA, Evenflo and IDOT Urge Parents and Caregivers to Have Their Child Safety Seats Inspected.The Crystal Lake Police department is urging parents and caregivers to make sure their child safety seats are properly installed on National Seat Check Saturday, September 24th.  As part of Child Passenger Safety Week (September 18-24, 2011), The Crystal Lake Police department will have certified technicians available to provide free hands-on child safety seat inspections and advice from 10:00am until 1:00pm at Buy Buy Baby, 5540 Northwest Highway Crystal Lake, Il 60014.  This event is one of 82 Illinois events sponsored by AAA, Evenflo, the Illinois Department of Transportation’s Division of Traffic Safety (IDOT/DTS) and the Crystal Lake Police department.

In motor vehicle crashes, child safety seats reduce the risk of fatal injury by 71 percent for children younger than 1 and by 54 percent for children 1 to 4 in passenger cars, according to data collected by The U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).  In 2009 alone, 754 children 12 or younger were killed in motor vehicle traffic crashes while riding in passenger cars or light trucks.  And among those who were fatally injured where restraint use was known, 42 percent were unrestrained.  Many of these tragedies could have been prevented if the children were in the right restraint for their age and size. 

The updated recommendations emphasize how important it is to keep children in each restraint type for as long as possible before moving them to the next type.  For maximum child passenger safety, parents and caregivers should visit their local inspection station to ensure their child’s safety seat is used properly.

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No registration is necessary to participate, but parents are asked to bring the following to the event:

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*Your child

*Your vehicle with instruction manual

*Your child’s car seat or booster seat Car seat instructions

To learn more about this event, call Officer Kimberley Shipbaugh at 815/356-3683 or by email kshipbaugh@crystallake.org.

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