By WMBD TV
HEYWORTH, Ill. (WMBD) — The McLean County Health Department hosted a free car seat check event in Heyworth, aiming to ensure the safety of children in cars.
The goal of the event was to check as many car seats as possible, done by trained technicians, while also informing people about safe car seat practices.
“Some of the common mistakes that we find, the number one is that the car seat is just installed too loosely,” said Megan Wilson, health promotions manager and trained car seat technician. “It should not move more than an inch when you wiggle it at the seatbelt pass.”
“The second one is that the kiddos transitioned to a different car seat too early, you know, primarily rear-facing to forward-facing, the Illinois law. A kiddo cannot be transitioned to forward-facing until they’re at least two.”
Making sure your car seat is installed in your car is important too. If installed incorrectly, the child could be injured or even killed.
“The anchor straps you’ll see in your vehicle, usually there’s, you know, a curved part that you can lock those into place, and you really just want to make sure that it is tight and secure. Again, you don’t want more than an inch of movement. You do not want to use those anchors and the seatbelt at the same time,” said Wilson.
Lastly, ensuring the harness straps are tight enough will keep your child safe in the event of an accident.
“The harness straps are the straps, you know, that you put on the kiddo in the car seat. That is another common mistake that we actually see is that they’re just too loose. You know, they don’t want to hurt the baby. They don’t want them to be snug, but you want them to be secure, especially if there’s an accident,” she said.
If you missed Tuesday’s event, do not worry. You can attend any of the Mobile Health Clinic events and receive a free car seat check, or you can call the department and schedule a time to have it done.
“Always check your manual because every car is different. Every vehicle is different. So that’s why a car seat track is so important as well. Just because there are so many different car seats out there, some of the bigger fancier ones, you know, they’re hard to get tight and secure in there. So that’s why we’re here today to make sure that it’s in there properly,” she said.
WMBD TV first reported this story. You can read the original story online at CIProud.com.
