craigdailypress.com

The Craig Police Department is now offering free child car seat inspections and instruction on proper car seat use.

The program, which just started recently, required Bryan Gonzales, a corporal with the Craig Police Department, to go to Steamboat Springs for a four-day certification program in May.

Gonzales says 80 to 90 percent of car seats are installed incorrectly

in vehicles.

The certification process has gotten more strenuous in the last couple of years, according to Gonzales, and now car seat inspectors must re-certify every two years.

A car seat inspection will take between a half an hour and 45 minutes, depending on the condition of the vehicle and the car seat.

A new law enacted in Colorado last year requires children who are 4 and 5 years old and shorter than 55 inches to use booster seats while riding in vehicles.

Enforcement of the regulation, which was signed into law on June 4, 2002, will not start until Aug. 1, 2004 and police will give drivers warnings and not tickets for one year.

During the inspection Gonzales goes through and points out problems that need to be rectified.

"The point is to teach the parents how to do this so they can repeat it day after day," Gonzales said.

Gonzales also conducts a search to see if the car seat model has been recalled.

The most common problems with installing a car seat incorrectly are:

• facing the car seat the wrong direction
• not properly fastening the car seat into a vehicle so that it is too loose
• putting the car seat into the wrong position

Local response to the program has been "very minimal, unfortunately," Gonzales said.

National Night Out, a program, which will be held at Wendy's from 5 to 8 p.m. Aug. 5 will include child safety seat inspections.

Motor vehicle crashes are the number one killer of children from ages 1 to 14, according to the National Organization of Car Seat Use and about 50 percent of these deaths of children under 5, involved children who were unrestrained.

Liz King is an intern with the Craig Daily Press. She can be reached at 824-7031 or eking@craigdailypress.com.

Breakout box:

For more information call Cpl. Bryan Gonzales at 826-2360

SIDEBAR INFO:

What other states are doing

• Arkansas has a law that went into effect that requires children 5 and under and weighing less than 60 pounds to use an appropriate child safety seat.
• California requires children under 6 to use a child restraint system, this law went into effect on January 1,2002
• Maine signed into law on April 1, 2002 a bill that requires children ages 7 and under to use the proper child safety seat.
• Pennsylvania's law, which went into effect on February 21, 2003, requires booster seats for children ages 4- to 7-years-old.