Directorate of Emergency Services (DES) personnel are inspecting car seats for military families as part of Month of the Military Family in November.
Personnel were available Nov. 4-7 at the Child Development Center with displays of different types of car seats and offering guidance on how to use them.
A similar display will be set up from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Nov. 12-14 at South Post Family Housing.
Families can also schedule personal inspections during that time to make sure their car seats are right for their children’s age and weight and are
secured properly in their vehicles.
Community Liaison Specialist Bob Bills said DES decided to offer the car-seat inspections in November to honor Month of the Military Family and to promote safety before upcoming holidays.
“Anything we can do to promote safety, to make sure someone doesn’t get an injury, we’re going to promote it,” Bills said. “With the holidays
coming up and people traveling, we thought this would be a good fit.”
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration at www.nhtsa.gov, vehicle crashes are one of the leading causes of death for children between 1 and 13 years old. Of the children who died in car crashes in 2017, 37 percent were unrestrained. Child safety seats have been shown to reduce fatal injury by 71 percent for infants (under 1 year old) and by 54 percent for toddlers (1 to 4 years old) in passenger cars.
In addition, nearly 60 percent of car seats are installed or adjusted
incorrectly, which can be detrimental in an accident. Getting car seats
inspected can help children avoid injury or death in case of a crash
by pointing out and fixing problems before an accident occurs.
In addition to stopping by the displays and scheduling an inspection, information on car seats and booster seats can be found online at https://www.nhtsa.gov/equipment/car-seats-and-boosterseats.
Learn more about Fort McCoy online at https://home.army.mil/mccoy or on Facebook by searching “ftmccoy.”