August 21, 2006

Safe Kids Quad Cities, Ericksen Chevrolet Team Up To Give Kids A Safe Ride

DAVENPORT, Iowa – Eriksen Chevrolet in Milan and Safe Kids Quad Cities will team up to ensure that Quad Cities kids are getting a safe ride on Saturday with a child passenger safety seat check.

The child safety seat inspection will be held on Saturday at Eriksen Chevrolet, 325 E. 1st Ave., Milan from 10 a.m.-2 p.m.  There is no charge for the car seat checks.

Safe Kids Quad Cities, sponsored by Genesis Medical Center, Illini Campus is one of more than 300 coalitions across the country that provide services as part of the national Safe Kids Buckle Up program.

Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of deaths in chidren 14 years old and younger.  In a crash, inappropriately restrained children are nearly 3.5 times more likely to be seriously injured than children who are correctly restrained.  According to the National Highway Safety Administration, approximately 73 percent of all child passenger restraints – more than 80 percent of car seats and about 40 percent of booster seats – are used incorrectly.

Keene Hart, Coordinator of Safe Kids Quad Cities, said the percentage of improper use of child safety seats appears to be higher in the Quad Cities.

“Improper usage is a national problem and that includes the Quad Cities. Our own child passenger safety checks are showing that approximately 94 percent of the vehicles have improperly installed restraints,’’ said Hart.  “The No. 1 thing we see is car seats that are not secured tightly enough.

“I think a lot of the improper use we see is because the parents, or whoever it is driving, have not read the directions for installation closely enough.’’

Safe Kids Quad Cities checks the child passenger restraints of more than 300 vehicles each year.

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