Buckled in: safety seat check held in Eureka

Eureka, Ca., (KIEM)- Fire trucks, Highway Patrol Vehicles, and employees from the Department of Health and Human Services gathered in front of Target in Eureka Friday for what looked almost like a massive traffic stop. Looking closer, Friday was all about protecting local kids.

California State Law requires children under the age of eight to be secured in a booster or car seat on the roadways. Installing car seats may seem simple enough on the surface. That simplicity might be deceptive.

“Probably 75-80% of the time there’s something wrong with the way a car seat is installed. It may be minor, but it might be something a little bit more major that they did wrong.” Officer Cy May, with California Highway Patrol said,”It really is an in-depth process. We’ve got many car seat technicians here today, and each one of these car seat techs went through an entire week of training in order to be certified in installing many different types of child passenger safety seats.”

Technicians from DHHS, the Humboldt Bay Fire Department, and CHP were on site to walk parents through the proper steps for installing a car seat, and buckling in their tikes.

“We usually see between 20 and 30 cars at these events,” Officer May said, “And that’s 20 to 30 children who are safer.”

May also says these events are usually held twice a year, once in the fall and once in the spring. They’re organized in part by the Humboldt Car Seat Coalition.

If you missed today’s event, you can learn more about car seat safety here: http://www.humboldtgov.org/569/Child-Passenger-Safety-Program