Crystal Lake Police to Hold Car Seat Check on Saturday

The Crystal Lake Police Department will conduct a “National Seat Check Saturday” event on September 21, at Pauly Toyota, 1035 S Route 31 in Crystal Lake.  

Certified child passenger safety technicians will be on hand from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. to check child safety seats for proper installation and advise parents and caregivers how to choose the right seats and how to install them properly in their vehicles. 

The event, part of Crystal Lake’s participation in National Child Passenger Safety Week (September 15-21, 2013), is free to the public. It is one of 88 Illinois events sponsored by AAA, Illinois Secretary of State, Illinois Head Start Association and the Illinois Department of Transportation. 

Motor vehicle crashes are a leading cause of death for children ages 1 to 13.  

Crash data from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration shows that during the five-year period from 2007 to 2011, 3,661 children were killed in car crashes.  

In addition, an estimated 634,000 children were injured, more than the population of Boston, MA. 

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 installed and used properly: 

1. Rear-Facing Seats: In the back seat from birth to the height and weight limit of the seat.  Recommended up to two years old, but at a minimum age of one year old and 20 pounds.
   
   
2. Forward-Facing Seats: In the back seat when the child has reached the height or weight limit of the rear-facing seat to about four years of age and 40-65 pounds.
   
   
3. Booster Seats: In the back seat from about age four to at least age eight.
   
   
4. Seat Belts: At age eight and older and taller than 4’9’’.

Remember: All children younger than 13 should ride in the back seat.

As of January 1, 2012, seat belt use is required in all seating positions.