Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Safety first!


I am a frequent visitor to the parenting forums on Delphi forums. I've been posting there since June '03 and I have made many lasting friends there, both in real life and just online. But that's not what this post is about. This post is about car safety. Over the weekend a mother from a few of the forums I visit was in a terrible car accident. She and her family were driving along at 50mph towing their boat behind them. A jeep was trying to pass two cars at once and hit their SUV head on.



Three out of 4 of the people in the Jeep died, including a 15 year old and an 11 year old.The husband broke his leg, requiring surgery, her mother broke her wrist, and she had lacerations that required stitching and a short stay in the hospital. She has 3 young children who didn't have a scratch on them.



The reason for that is vigilant car safely. All of the adults in the SUV were wearing seat belts and their children were properly restrained in car seats. The mother is a CPST, or child passenger safety technician, and knew how to keep her babies safe in the vehicle, but not everyone has that kind of knowledge. I believe there should be more education available and I also believe that law enforcement should spend more time educating and correcting people who are not following the law. As parents it's our responsibility to keep our kids safe. They can't do it for themselves! I know that Chloe wouldn't ride in a car seat if I didn't make her, but she's only 2. She isn't capable of making that decision. I get so angry when I see children riding unrestrained or adults not wearing their seat belts.


All my kids are in car seats. The law in VA requires children 8 and younger to be in car seats or boosters. My kids will remain in their seats till they grow out of them, and they grow slowly. Tobin rides in a Britax Parkway. The limits for that seat are 100lbs and 60inches tall. She'll be in that seat for a looong time. Alex and Chloe are both in Graco Nautilus's. They will remain harnessed till 65lbs. (Alex is only 34lbs at age 4.) and then the seat converts into a high back booster and a backless booster. I wish we had kept Chloe rear-facing longer, but when we switched vehicles before Evan was born we had to turn her so that three car seats could fit in the back. Evan will remain rearfacing till at least 2 years old. (As the AAP now recomends: http://askdrsears.com/news/headlines0809.asp)


Bottom line is that it's our job to keep our children safe. Shouldn't we do it as well as we possibly can?

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