PennDot Pushes Parent Awareness about Car Seat Safety

PennDOT is kicking off National Child Passenger Safety Week with car seat fitting stations, to help give parents peace of mind about installation. Parents and guardians who currently have kids in child safety seats will be able to take them to the fitting stations across the state where PennDOT and local police can inspect the car seats to make sure they're in correctly. PennDOT currently funds around 170 fitting stations, with over 5,000 seats checked last year. Of those seats, eight out of ten were being used improperly.



Jay Ofsanik, Press Safety Officer for PennDOT, said that the fitting stations are an asset to parents and the week "gives them an opportunity to go out to different areas where there's car safety seat technicians who can help inspect their seats and show them the proper way to install and get the child in there." Ofsanik also said that many parents do try to install their car seats properly but often don't understand the manuals forget to check them.



State law currently requires parents to put children under four in car seats. While children four to eight require a booster seat. Last year alone 5,000 drivers were cited for violating child seat laws receiving $100 fines plus added costs. A list of State Police fitting stations is available at http://www.psp.state.pa.us/ while a list of car seat checks can be found at http://www.drivesafepa.org/ under "Traffic Safety Information Center" and then "Child Passenger Safety."