Tuesday, May 29, 2001

Checkpoint in Stuttgart to demonstrate correct use of child safety seats

By David Josar, Stuttgart bureau

STUTTGART, Germany — The first child safety-seat checkpoint in the area will be held Thursday in an effort to ensure parents are properly using the seats for their young boys and girls.

“Statistics say 85 percent of people don’t use child seats properly, but the number is probably more like 90 percent,” said Dawn White, one of the volunteers behind the child-seat safety day and a member of the newly formed Stuttgart Car Safety Seat Committee. The checkpoint is being held in conjunction with Safety Week.

The event will mirror the safety checks first conducted in the Aviano Air Base, Italy, military community earlier this year after a small child improperly secured in a safety seat was killed in an accident.

The Stuttgart group was able to get the USAA educational foundation to provide money to train three people from the area how to check the safety seats and teach others how to properly use them.

White said she became concerned about proper seat use after the birth of her daughter.

“Our daughter was born here, and I knew when she was born we were doing things wrong [with child safety seats],” White said. When she visited her family in the United States, she went to a local police station to find out the right way to use the seats.

Most people, White said, don’t secure the seats tightly enough into their vehicles. Some parents also don’t realize they should be using the seats longer with their kids than they do, she added.

“This is something that should have been done earlier,” said Karen Hughes, who lives on Patch and has children ages 14 months and 3 years old. “I know I can use some training on how to use the safety seats.”

The safety check will be held 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday at the Huskey Field parking lot at Patch Barracks. The event is being co-sponsored by groups that include the 6th Area Support Group Safety Office, Child and Youth Services, the Stuttgart Wellness Center and the Community Health Nurse.

White said a second safety-seat check day is being planned for the fall, and she hopes eventually the checks will be held several times a year.