Free child car-seat safety guidance available weekly

Did you know that 96% of child car seats are installed incorrectly?

That’s a statistic Bridget Gardner, R.N., trauma and injury prevention program director of the Louisiana Passenger Safety Task Force at University Medical Center (UMC) New Orleans, said applies nationwide.

To ensure that every parent properly installs a car seat, restrains the child in the car seat and has a functioning car seat, the Louisiana Passenger Safety Task Force, run by the UMC’s Level 1 Trauma Program, has fitting stations offering free checks.

Sept. 26 is National Seat Check Saturday. From 9 a.m.-noon, two New Orleans-area locations will conduct free child car-seat checks: the St. Bernard Government Complex, 8201 West Judge Perez in Chalmette, and Leblanc Pediatrics, 219 South Tyler St., Covington.

Those in need can register, in advance, for free car seats at UMC’s website: https://marketing.lcmchealth.org/acton/fs/blocks/showLandingPage/a/19537/p/p-04f4/t/page/fm/0

“On this day, each region of the state will provide a free child safety seat and offer the community service of checking seats,” Gardner said.

Free checks save lives

Gardner said UMC’s commitment to decrease injuries and fatalities extends beyond this one-day event. Every Wednesday, certified child passenger safety (CPS) technicians and instructors trained through the task force provide free, one-on-one education at fitting stations in the New Orleans area. It’s from 9 a.m.-noon at Dat Drive, 6701 Veterans Memorial Blvd. in Metairie; and from 1-4 p.m. at Troop B State Police on Williams Boulevard at I-10 in Kenner.

Before the pandemic, parents or guardians would visit a fitting station, watch and discuss a 15-minute video on car seat installation and safety, then practice what they learned by installing their own car seat with their child in it. Due to current distancing mandates, participants now are emailed a video link to watch before their  appointment. They then install the seat with technicians nearby to correct anything wrong.

“You leave in full understanding of how to use the seat, so, in the future, when you reinstall the seat, you know how to prevent injury (to your child),” Gardner said.

“The parents do the work and learn how to do it themselves,” said Robert Mire, master trooper with the Louisiana State Police. “It is important they have the training.”

Divine Mercy parishioner

Collying Salinas, who conducts car-seat checks and parent education as the YMCA’s Car Seat Safety Outreach program director, has worked with the immigrant community since 2014. She was previously a health promoter for Catholic Charities Archdiocese New Orleans (CCANO). She continues to work with CCANO and the archdiocese’s Hispanic Apostolate for special car-seat events. Because of her experience, she refers people to various needed resources.

“If you find out that a family needs a car seat, you find out about other needs as well,” Salinas said. “It is very important to have contact with other organizations so we can help.”

Salinas coordinated last year’s National Car Seat Check at Divine Mercy Parish in Kenner, where she is a parishioner. For her work, she was named a “Louisiana Hero” by the Louisiana Passenger Safety Task Force in 2017 and 2018.

“It’s extremely important to have someone like Collying,” Gardner said. “People (in non-English-speaking populations) need to be comfortable with the service they are seeking. Her importance is that she develops a trusting relationship with them and is able to communicate with them that they need to be buckled. … Having her bringing in this population … at the fitting stations is extremely important; otherwise I don’t think we would be able to reach out to the minority population.”

Both Salinas and Gardner said recent immigrants may not be aware of seat belts and car seats because their native land didn’t require them. Salinas added how the Latino population is traditionally more concerned with surviving than with safety.

“In my country, Honduras, car seats are not enforced,” Salinas said. “So, when families from Honduras come here, they don’t know anything about car seats. We need to educate the Latino community.”

Gordon Wadge, president and CEO of the YMCA Greater New Orleans, says Salinas’ faith and concern for people shows.

“She is a great servant leader,” he said.

Task force changed law

In August 2019, the Louisiana Passenger Safety Task Force rallied the state Legislature to pass a more stringent child car-seat safety law that has become a “Best in the Country” model, exceeding most accepted standards, Gardner said.

“Child safety seats and technology have evolved, but the law was inadequate,” Gardner said. “We changed the weight and height and requirements to delay the transition (to different restraint procedures). Children stay rear-facing longer in a car seat and stay in a booster seat longer. This is the way National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and National Academy of Pediatrics teach.”

“The task force has been effective in changing the requirements for different weights of children and the position a child car seats is put in a car,” Mire said. “Until 2019, a child age 1 or younger was required to sit in a rear-facing seat. Now that age has been raised to age 2. The best practices in law are now married to safety. Bridget was part of that working with pediatrician’s recommendations. It’s no longer the minimum requirements.”

cbordelon@clarionherald.org.