Mitchell Buick-GMC and Community Medical Center Team up for Car Seat Safety

 

Thursday, a mom with two children in a late model Nissan Altima attempted to turn into the traffic on US 87 from FM 2105 and was struck by a northbound pickup truck. The crash sent the mother and the driver of the pickup to the hospital with incapacitating injuries. Her children, properly secured in child safety seats, or car seats, were not injured.

Wednesday, parents of San Angelo children, with their children, brought their cars, pickups and SUVs to Mitchell Buick-GMC, the car dealer at 4105 Sherwood Way, to have the safety and configuration of their car seats inspected by a Safe Kids certified child restraint safety inspector.

Safe Kids San Angelo holds these regularly scheduled events; they are intended to save children’s lives in the Concho Valley, like lives of those two children in the crash in Grape Creek Thursday.

San Angelo Police Officer Zack Upton and DPS Trooper Shawn Baxter are both certified, as are other volunteers. If the car seat is deemed inoperable, unsafe, or incompatible, the parent is given a free replacement car seat and volunteers install it in accordance with child safety requirements right then and there.

Catie Wiedenhofer has been the coordinator for Safe Kids San Angelo since it was founded in 1995. She said well over 15,000 car seats have been checked or replaced since then

“The average new car seat that the organization stocks costs approximately $40,” she said. Giving away free car seats is Safe Kid’s biggest expense.

The program, sponsored by Community Medical Center, was a brainchild of Dr. Jane Rider who was then working at the local hospital. Not many knew about child passenger safety in San Angelo until then, Wiedenhofer said. (Dr. Rider, a pediatrician, also founded the first neonatal unit and, according to reports, lowered the infant mortality rate 50 percent in San Angelo.)

Wiedenhofer said that parents of all economic levels benefit from the car seat inspections and giveaways. “Parents are amazed that they are doing it wrong,” she said, referring to choosing the right car seat and installing and maintaining it correctly. “We hold three or four events per year. And parents come by our office at other times,” she said. Don’t wait for the next event to have pros inspect your car seat, she urged.

Here are Wiedenhofer’s Rules for Car Seat Safety:

  1. Don’t buy a car seat at a garage sale.
  2. Don’t wash the straps.
  3. Don’t wash and dry the cover (or liner) of the car seat, it ruins of the fire retardant.
  4. Come by the Safe Kids San Angelo office and make sure that your car seat is installed properly by allowing Safe Kids to inspect it for free.
  5. If you’re buying a car seat, make sure it’s compatible with the car where the seat will be used.

While Safe Kids’ signature mission is car seat safety, Wiedenhofer said that the organization covers all risk areas, like bike safety where they hold annual bike helmet giveaways and bike rodeos. Water safety is also a focus. With an abundance of recreational boating on area lakes, Safe Kids provides new and replacement life preservers that are U.S. Coast Guard-approved.

The Safe Kids San Angelo offices are at the community Health Club, 3336 W State Highway Loop 306.  Wiedenhofer welcomes all parents to call or stop by and have their car seats inspected for free. If the car seats are not adequate, Safe Kids will offer you a brand new, free replacement. Their phone number is (325) 947-6130 and you can LIKE them on Facebook.

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