Sept. 18-24 marks 2016’s Child Passenger Safety Week, a time to highlight a serious problem in South Carolina: the misuse of car seats.
“Up to 95 percent of car seats are installed incorrectly and 90% of parents and caregivers feel as if their car seat is installed correctly,” said Deputy Dan Rusinyak of the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department. “That’s why we’re trying to put as much attention as possible on this subject matter.”
South Carolina is home to 1,100 certified technicians trained to teach you how to properly install a car seat, something that greatly reduces the risk of injury or death during an accident.
“It’s not always about fatalities, it’s about lifelong injuries,” said Neal Martin of the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control. “And we want to help these little children all across the state be transported safely.”
This year to make it even simpler, the Lexington Police Department and Lexington County Sheriff’s Department are teaming up. All throughout the week, they’ll be offering free car seat checks to anyone interested.
“We know that just being in Lexington, the town itself, we’re not hitting the population we need to when it comes to misuse and education,” said Officer Steffonie Cockerill of the Lexington Police Department. “So we’ve partnered every day with the Sheriff’s Department and most of them are going to be in the outliers, like the north region, the south region and the west.”
Free car seat checks are available at these locations. It takes less than a half hour to make sure your children are safe on the roads.