Free Carseat Installations and Inspections Every Month at JSUMC -- what a resource! (I've been a FEW times!)

With child #2 due any day now, my husband and I decided to install a second car seat in at least one of our cars (to avoid scrambling last minute on discharge day from the hospital!). We remembered that carseats aren’t always the easiest contraptions to install, so I took my car once again to the free installation center at JSUMC. (And since the fine folks at the car seat station have now helped our family four times with two cars, I wanted to pass along information about this valuable local resource for Jersey Shore area families. It‘s definitely saved us some aggravation doing it ourselves, to say the least!)

Basically, anyone can get their current carseat double-checked for proper installation, or bring in a new carseat and have the experts put the whole thing in. The Carseat Fitting Station events take place on the 1st Tuesday of every month, and have been going on since for the past 12 months; and, even when it‘s dark outside, there‘s a covered and well-lit area for parents to pull up with their cars. According to Mary Alyce Berkowitz, RN, JSUMC Trauma Injury Prevention Coordinator and coordinator of the program, since February 2011 “we have checked approximately 250 seats. We…have an indoor area to keep parents and kids warm while the seats area being checked. We also have Boy Scouts on hand to supervise kids if the parents need to be out by their car to learn about their seat.”

And when I say experts, parents should rest assured the carseat ‘fitters’ are State Police officers certified in carseat installations. The NJ State Police receive grant funding from the National Highway Traffic Safety Association, and JSUMC is the Central Jersey partner. (Let’s just say that after insisting my lovely husband ‘did it wrong‘ with our first seat, I was very happy the SP came to the rescue! Saved him from ‘redo-ing‘ it, and me from, perhaps, swearing some unmentionables!).

So, if you’re reading this blog post saying, “No thanks, we put our carseat in correctly” -- you may want to just stop by and have the experts double-check. Why? Read on!

Photographer and local mom, Pollyanna Wall, is the car-seat expert in my mom’s group, and she plans to become a certified Child Passenger Seat Technician this summer.  Polly has gotten many of us local moms double-checking our seats -- and making sure our kids are secured properly.  The Brick mother got interested in car seat safety when she started researching convertible seats to switch her daughter, now 26-months old and still rear-facing, from her infant seat.

“We were on a budget and I had in my head that if I didn't get a particular brand, she wouldn't be safe. But we couldn't afford the $300 seat I wanted, so started reading about it, and realized there's no safest seat out there.”  Polly‘s told dozens of us local moms where the best deals are on carseats, and even passed along Consumer Reports information when one of us moms has had a question like, ‘Do I splurge on the fancy seat or go with the cheaper version?”

“(Carseats) all pass the same testing.  They are all safe as long as they are used correctly 100% of the time,” adds Polly.  That is sometimes the problem.  Not everyone installs them properly, and many parents use their child’s seat past expiration dates, or even despite recalls.  Says Berkowitz, “Unfortunately, 99% of the seats (we see at JSUMC) have some installation error.  Some are very minor, and some are downright unsafe.  Some of the common misuses we see – the wrong size seat for the particular child, seat installed too loosely, shoulder harness at the wrong level, harness too loose for the child, and the use of both LATCH and seatbelt for installation.  While it might seem like double protection, it's not the way the seats and safety devices have been crash tested, so we can’t recommend the double use.”

“Often, parents-to-be come in with their seats still in the box, and that’s OK.  We show them how to install it and help to reassure them that it is safe for their new bundle of joy.  So far, everyone has been appreciative of the corrections made.  Mostly, I think, because we don’t just fix it and send them on their way,” Berkowitz adds.  “We explain why we changed certain things, and show the parents so they can do it themselves in the future.  We answer any and all questions, make suggestions, and share our experience and knowledge.  It isn’t punitive or accusatory either.  We reinforce the safety message, and congratulate them on making sure their passengers are safe.”

Plus, the JSUMC carseat fitters occasionally see parents using old (did you know carseats expire after just six years?) or recalled seats.  “We check each seat to make sure it isn’t on the recall list , and if it is, look at the reason.  Sometimes, it is something that we can deal with on site.  For example, if there is a problem with the LATCH installation, we can use the seatbelt.  If the issue is the harness, and the child is using a seat as a booster, they should use the seatbelt rather than the 5 point harness.  If the recall says that the owner should contact the manufacturer for a repair kit, we tell them that... If the child is with the parent when we discover the issue, we make them safe if we can, otherwise we have loaner seats available so the caregiver can transport the child safely.”

Some good information to know!

Don’t forget the Carseat Fitting Station is the 1st Tuesday of every month (February 1, March 1, April 5th, May 3rd and so on), from 3pm-7pm, at JSUMC.  You can pull your car up to the Old Emergency Room Entrance, at 1945 Route 33, in Neptune. All parents and caregivers are welcome to attend this free, monthly event. [NOTE: NOT the new ER…use the OLD ER entrance!] For more information, call 732.776.4515.

Here are some statistics on crashes, carseats, and child safety restraints:
(courtesy Mary Alyce Berkowitz, RN, JSUMC Trauma Injury Prevention Coordinator)

• Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for ages 3 to 14 (based on 2006 figures, which are the latest mortality data currently available from the National Center for Health Statistics).

• Every day in the United States, an average of 4 children age 14 and younger were killed and 529 were injured in motor vehicle crashes during 2008.

• Research on the effectiveness of child safety seats has found them to reduce fatal injury by 71 percent for infants (younger than 1 year old) and by 54 percent for toddlers (1 to 4 years old) in passenger cars. For infants and toddlers in light trucks, the corresponding reductions are 58 percent and 59 percent, respectively.
• In 2008, there were 297 passenger vehicle occupant fatalities among children age 4 and younger. Of those 297 fatalities, where restraint use was known (282), 94 (32%) were totally unrestrained.
• Among children under age 5 in passenger vehicles, an estimated 244 lives were saved in 2008 by restraint use. Of these 244 lives saved, 219 were associated with the use of child safety seats and 25 with the use of adult seat belts. At 100 percent child safety seat use for children under age 5, an estimated 323 lives (that is, an additional 79) could have been saved in 2008.