Safety for Children

News of the latest child safety seat recall, from WLS-TV in Chicago:

RECARO is recalling about 5,400 seats because the central front adjuster strap on some seats may slip and cause the harness straps to become loose.

The company says the affected models include RECARO Signo seats manufactured from February through September of last year.

RECARO will replace any defective seat free of charge. The company has estabilished a hotline for carseat owners. That number is 1-888-473-2290.

A Groves, Texas woman has been charged with two counts of criminal negligent homicide after her two children were killed in her car while not restrained by child safety seats. In Texas, as in many states, there are certain child safety restraint laws to protect children in automobiles.

Trooper David Martinez tells KFDM, "the two children were not properly secured in the vehicle." Martinez says one-year-old Rodolfo Ramos Romero was wearing a seatbelt, but state law requires anyone less than five years old and 36 inches in height should be in a child safety seat. Romero’s five-year-old sister Ariadna Zepeda Romero was not wearing a child safety seat or a seatbelt.

If you are preparing to travel for the holiday season, have you thought about travel safety for your child? Both car and air travel require child restraint seats for children under a certain age and weight, and if you are flying, you’ll need a child restraint seat for the car when you get where you are going.

Not all car seats can fit on standard airplane seats, which are typically about 16 inches wide, but Safe Kids USA and the Federal Aviation Administration strongly recommend using a car seat in an aircraft whenever possible. As in cars, babies under a year old and 20 pounds are best restrained in a rear-facing car seat, and a forward-facing car seat can protect toddlers up to 40 pounds or more. Make sure your child’s car seat is labeled "certified for use in motor vehicles and aircraft."

"You need your child’s car seat to travel to and from the airport anyway," said Korn. "Car rental companies might not have reliable car seats available and checking your child’s seat as baggage could result in damage. Your kids are better off in their own car seats."

Children who have outgrown car seats should sit directly on the airplane seat and, like all passengers, keep the lap belt buckled across their thighs or hips. Booster seats are not allowed on airplanes, because they require shoulder belts and airplane seats have only lap belts.

NPR, citing the World Heath Organization, reports that almost a million children across the globe die every year stemming from “unintentional injuries”. According to the WHO, once a child reaches the age of nine, an injury becomes the number one cause of death. The causes rank as follows:

1. Road crashes: Kill 260,000 children a year and injure about 10 million. They are the leading cause of death among youths ages 10 to 19, and a leading cause of child disability.

2. Drowning: Kills more than 175,000 children annually. Up to 3 million children each year survive a drowning incident. Due to brain damage in some survivors, nonfatal drowning has the highest average lifetime health and economic impact of any type of injury.
 
3. Burns: Fire-related burns kill nearly 96,000 children a year, and the death rate is 11 times higher in low- and middle-income countries than in high-income countries.
 
4. Falls: Nearly 47,000 children fall to their deaths every year, but hundreds of thousands more sustain less serious injuries from a fall.
 
5. Poisoning: More than 45,000 children die each year from unintended poisoning.

The unthinkable happened when a car flipped over recently and injured a child who’s child safety seat wasn’t properly installed. A local news station from Washington state reports:

Police say a child safety seat that was inside a car that rolled over several times Friday morning was not properly installed.

An 11-month-old boy was thrown from that car as it rolled over just after midnight in the 800 block of SW 356th Street.

Federal Way Police say a white Mercury Sable was traveling east on Southwest 356th Street when the driver lost control. The vehicle rolled over several times before landing on its roof in the middle of an intersection. The infant was ejected from the car and suffered critical head injuries. The driver, a 30-year-old man, was also injured and had to be extricated from the car.

Many communities have child safety seat checkpoints where you can bring your car in to make sure the seat is properly installed. Check with your local police station or firehouse for checkpoints in your area.

Do you believe the school bus driver that picks up your children in the morning is a safe one? A bus driver in Tennessee was recently charged with driving under the influence of painkillers and reckless endangerment of a child after passing out at the wheel when driving 30 students home from school. School districts have strict rules over the hiring of bus drivers, but it was discovered recently that many do not follow the guidelines.

According to federal law, bus drivers must have a commercial driver’s license. Other regulations vary by state and by district, but they all require criminal background checks as well as random drug and alcohol testing. The problem is, some states don’t play by the rules.

"We found all kinds of district personnel who had no idea that there were federal regulations," said Susan Montee, who performed an audit of 30 districts looking at 435 drivers.

She found that nearly 70 of them were not in compliance and districts often failed to run criminal background checks, or drug tests or even meet training requirements.

A check with your school district on the enforcement of these regulations could go a long way into making sure your

child is as safe as possible when on a school bus

.

This week marks Child Safety Week across the nation with a focus on child restraint seats. Many child safety seats are not properly installed in automobiles leaving children vulnerable should an accident happen.

In 2006, among children under 5, an estimated 425 lives were saved by child restraint use. Research shows that child restraints provide the best protection for all children up to age 8; after that, seat belts provide the best protection.

Each state has different regulations regarding the use of child restraint seats. Be sure and check with your state’s government to see what those are.

State Farm Insurance is holding it’s Eighth Annual Child Safety Day at their offices all across the country this September. With their handy state by state guide, you can check and see which offices are holding the events and on what date and time. The child safety days are a great way to ensure that your child’s safety seats are properly installed.

You can learn how to correctly use car seats, booster seats, and seat belts for your children at the eighth annual State Farm Child Safety Day. Events are scheduled in May and September throughout the country. This "car seat inspection day" will be held at hundreds of locations across the United States, with many sites including other safety-related activities for parents and children.

The state of Kentucky has declared September Child Passenger Safety Month, lengthening the National Child Passenger Safety Week which runs from September 21-27. Kentucky governor Steve Beshear along with the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet realized the need for awareness in the state regarding child safety in automobiles.

Three out of four child safety seats are improperly installed in vehicles, according to research by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. That’s why state officials are driving home the importance of child passenger safety with a month-long campaign to emphasize proper child safety seat usage.

“It’s the responsibility of every parent and caregiver to make sure their children are safely restrained – every trip, every time,” said Gov. Beshear. “We are urging everyone to get their child safety seats inspected. When it comes to the safety of a child, there is no room for mistakes.”

More than 90 percent of child safety seats in the United States are installed incorrectly, according to the safety administration. When correctly installed, safety seats are 71 percent effective in reducing infant fatalities, 67 percent effective in reducing the need for hospitalization and 54 percent effective in reducing fatalities of children 1 to 4. A properly installed, belt-positioning booster seat lowers the risk of injury to children by nearly 60 percent, compared with seat belts alone.

As we turn the corner from summer to fall, September not only brings with it the start of school, but Baby Safety month as well. Is your house as safe as it could be for your baby or toddler? Here are some great pieces of advice from the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association:

This September marks the 25th anniversary of Baby Safety Month, sponsored annually by the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association (JPMA). This month-long campaign exists to educate consumers and raise awareness of safety issues surrounding the proper use and selection of juvenile products.

“Keeping a child physically safe is the most basic of all parental responsibilities,” says Mike Bost, vice president of Palmetto Childproofing Inc, a professional babyproofing company that services Charlotte, NC and surrounding areas.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, one million children seek medical attention each year because of unintentional injury, and approximately 50,000 suffer permanent damage.

With over seven years in the child safety industry and extensive experience in childproofing nearly two thousand homes, Bost says that the best defense against injuries to babies and toddlers in the home is for parents to provide a safe environment in which their baby can live, learn, explore, and play.

He recommends that all first-time parents get a child’s eye view of the world. “Get down on your hands and knees,” says Bost, “look around inside your home, and see what your child sees through his or her eyes. You may be surprised at what you see. The obvious hazards and dangers will stare right back at you.”

With the wide variety of child safety products on the market, the prospect of babyproofing a home can seem overwhelming for many parents. Bost says selecting the right safety products the first time is important to avoid the hassle and inconvenience of returning items that do not work or fit properly.

He suggests that parents experiencing difficulty or frustration babyproofing their home consider using the services of a professional childproofer. “Professional childproofers are intimately familiar with child safety products,” Bost says, “and they have considerable experience installing baby gates, cabinet and drawer latches, and many other childproofing products that parents sometimes find difficult to install on their own.”

As Baby Safety Month gets underway, Bost says he welcomes the opportunity to promote child safety and focus parents’ attention and efforts in making their home a safe haven for their little one.