Delano Herald Journal

Serving the communities of Delano, Loretto, Montrose, MN, and the surrounding area

County destroys unsafe child seats



The McLeod County Public Health Department, with the help
of the highway department, crushed and disposed of unsafe child safety seats
on Wednesday.

The seats that were destroyed were either over six years
old or had been in a car crash.

“The purpose is to raise awareness for parents to
check to see if they are using child safety seats correctly,” said
Jean Johnson, public family health nurse.

Johnson has been trained by the National Highway Traffic
Administration as a child passenger safety technician. The other family
health nurses also have had some training.

Johnson said she had to wrestle with some people to get
the seats. “If a car seat is over six years old, it is like outdoor
plastic furniture,” Johnson said. “It compromises the seat.”

The hot and cold makes plastic brittle, so the seats are
not as safe.

Johnson also said seats that have been in a car crash may
be compromised and should be disposed of.

The other part of the mission is to educate people how
to use the child safety seats correctly, and which ones to use with each
stage of physical development.

“About 80 percent of child safety seats are used incorrectly,”
Johnson said, which can cause unnecessary injuries.

Any infant that is under 1-year-old or 20 pounds should
be facing the rear of the car. “The bones in their head and neck are
not strong enough to deal with the sudden jerks if they are facing front,”
Johnson said.

The child has to be in the seat correctly and the seat
installed in the car correctly. The seat should be tightly installed in
the car, with no more than one-inch give in any direction. The child should
be safely held in with the seat belts with no more than one finger width
under them.

According to Johnson, if the child and seat are loose,
a crash would shake the child and cause injuries.

“People need to remember that seat belts in cars have
been designed for adult bodies, not child bodies,” said Johnson.

She also said a child should be in a booster seat until
the knees can bend comfortably over the seat with their back against the
seat. This may be older than 4-years-old, which is what the law requires.

“If they are not in a booster seat, they slouch and
the seat belt moves up to their abdomen,” Johnson said. “It can
cause other internal injuries.”

Johnson encourages everyone using child safety seats to
read the instructions that come with the seats and the instructions in their
cars.

“People do not understand the importance of using
car seats that are safest for their child,” Johnson said. “They
hesitate spending $70 because they can get them used. But the expense of
an emergency room visit from a crash, or a hospital stay is much more.”

Johnson asks people she works with if it is worth $70 to
keep their child from being injured in a crash. She said once they realize
the dangers of using seats that are old or have been in a crash, they have
been more than happy to give them up.

Public Health Nursing has child safety seats that people
can access. These seats are available for people, who are income eligible,
to purchase at a rate that corresponds to their income.

Part of the program includes training. If a family purchases
one of the seats, they have to undergo the training so they can use it safely.

One of the circumstances Johnson runs into is grandparents
saying “When we raised kids, there were no car seats.”

Johnson said things are different now. Children did not
travel in cars as much as they do now, the speed of travel is faster now
and there were not as many vehicles on the road as there is now.

Johnson also works with an Early Childhood Family Education
program. She said when she did safety checks with them, 95 percent were
using the child safety seats unsafely. “It was just some little things
that parents did not know that could cause injury.”

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