Austin-Travis County EMS Warns Drivers About Child Seat Safety

Next week is National Child Passenger Safety Week and the Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Service is warning drivers to make sure their child passengers are safe and buckled in properly.

Car crashes are the leading cause of death for children, EMS officials said. Every 34 seconds, a child under age 13 is involved in a crash.

And Austin-Travis County EMS says “the single most important thing parents can do to protect their children while riding in a motor vehicle is to install a car seat.”

But not all parents strap their kids in properly, they say.

According to Austin-Travis County EMS Captain Randy Chhabra says the most common problem is the mismatch between the angle of the child restraint and the angle of the seat. In most cases the base of the car seat will fit snugly, but sometimes the car seat won’t sit at the proper angle in your car, he said.

About 90 percent of the car seats inspected by EMS technicians at local car seat check events have this problem.

Austin-Travis County EMS will conduct a free car seat inspection on Monday from 9 to 11:30 a.m. at the CommUnity Care Clinic located at 1210 Braker Lane.

[PHOTO: Image via Shutterstock]