By Sherri Blevins
Alabama’s Governor, Kay Ivey, along with the Alabama Department of Public Health’s Child Passenger Safety Program, is taking steps to help prevent the needless deaths of Alabama children. According to a September 24,2018 article published on the saferide4kids.com website, car crashes are the number one killer of children in the United States. In 2016, 723 children ages twelve years and younger in the United States were killed as a result of motor vehicle accidents. More than 128,000 children of this age bracket were also injured in car crashes. Of all those children who died in 2016, 35% were not restrained. Another major problem with the use of child safety seats is they are either installed improperly, or the wrong type of seat is used for the child’s age and weight. According to the same article, anywhere from 72% to 84% of child restraints show critical misuses.
Governor Ivey awarded a $182,252.00 grant to aid in instructing Alabamians on the proper installation of car seats. This grant was awarded to the Department of Public Health’s Child Passenger Safety Program. The purpose of this program is to train adults as certified Child Passenger Safety (CPS) technicians after completing a three- day certification course. Governor Ivey stated, “Child safety seats save countless lives in automobile crashes. Knowing how to properly install one is an essential skill for any parent or caregiver of a young child.” She went on to say, “I commend the Child Passenger Safety Program for training experts who can assist parents, and I encourage anyone who needs assistance with child safety seats to take advantage of this program.” The plan for this program is to organize car-seat fitting stations around the state where the public will be able to have certified technicians check car seats that have already been installed or perform the installations themselves.
The source of the grant funds is the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and is being administered by the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA) . Kenneth Boswell, ADECA Director, stated, “Governor Ivey and I support the efforts of ADPH to educate the public to make travel as safe as possible for young children. ADECA is pleased to partner with ADPH on this program which could help save a number of young lives.”
The website for this program is www.cpsalabama.org. Fitting station and training information can be found here along with educational materials about safe use of car seats.