Utah Department of Public Safety

Primary Children’s Hospital and Utah Department of Public Safety Partner to Provide Recipes for Car Seat Safety

Primary Children’s Hospital and Utah Department of Public Safety Partner to Provide Recipes for Car Seat Safety

New “Keep Your Cupcake Safe” multi-media resources aim to help parents make sure their children are in the right seat.

SALT LAKE CITY – Most children ride in vehicles more than once a day. But are they riding in the right car seat for their size and is it installed correctly? To help parents answer this question and to kick off National Child Passenger Safety Week, Primary Children’s Hospital, Safe Kids Utah and the Utah Department of Public Safety’s Highway Safety Office are cooking up new “Keep Your Cupcake Safe” videos for parents and  a companion storybook for children.

On Friday, September 16^th at 10 a.m. in the Primary Children’s Hospital Children’s Playroom (Main Hospital, 3^rd Floor, South End), representatives from the hospital and the child passenger safety community will unveil the videos and storybook. Sgt. Sam Winkler from South Jordan Police Department will read the new book to patients at the hospital and then watch the new videos with them. Child passenger safety technicians will be available to provide car seat fitting and installation demonstrations. Media will be provided with electronic versions of the videos and car seat storybook.

“Our new ‘Keep Your Cupcake Safe’ 30-second videos will help parents and caregivers determine which car seat to use, where to install it in the vehicle and how to properly harness their child. It is a sweet feeling to know that you have done all that you can to keep your little cupcakes safe while traveling,” said Janet Brooks, Child Advocacy and Community Outreach Manager at Primary Children’s Hospital.

Why are car seats so important? In passenger cars, child safety seats reduce the risk of fatal injury by 71 percent for infants and by 54 percent for toddlers. For infants and toddlers in light trucks, the corresponding reductions were 58 percent and 59 percent, respectively. Most parents are confident they have correctly installed their child’s car seat, but in most cases (59 percent) the seat has not been installed correctly.

Crash data from Utah in 2014 shows that the older a child the less likely they were using a child safety seat. While 93 percent of 1-year olds in a crash were in a car seat, only 78 percent of 4-year-olds, 49 percent of 6-year-olds and 14 percent of 8-year-olds were in a child safety seat. The decrease in child safety seat use for children aged 4-8 is concerning and indicates that children are moving to adult-sized seat belts too early.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recommends keeping children rear-facing as long as possible up to the top height or weight allowed by their particular seats. Once a child outgrows the rear-facing-only “infant” car seat, he/she should travel in a rear-facing “convertible” or all-in-one car seat. Once your child outgrows the rear-facing size limits, the child is ready to travel in a forward-facing car seat with a harness and tether. After outgrowing the forward-facing car seats with harness, children should be placed in booster seats until they’re the right size to use seat belts safely. Parents should register car seats and booster seats with the car seat manufacturer so they can be notified in the event of a recall.

Child Passenger Safety Week runs September 18-24. Throughout the week, certified safety technicians will be offering free car seat inspections statewide, further providing parents and caregivers an opportunity to better understand which car seat is appropriate for their children and how to install it correctly. Visit clickitutah.org for a list of events throughout Utah or to find a car seat inspection station near you.

###