Peters Township Volunteer Fire Department installs 300 car seats a year
“I babysit during the school year,” said Picard, explaining Delaney, now nearly 14 months, has outgrown her infant seat and needed a larger one.
When you think of a fire department, you naturally think of fires. But, the Peters Township Volunteer Fire Department has been installing car seats for residents – and others – for free since 2002.
The department installs an average of 300 a year with summer being the busiest time for car seat installation, said firefighter and EMT Dave Holovack, who along with Kauer, have been certified and trained the Traffic Injury Prevention Project, a state program that promotes traffic safety. Three other Peters firefighters are also been certified by TIPP to install car seats.
Peters Township Volunteer Fire Department the only agency in Washington County certified by the state to install car seats.
“There was a need for this,” Holovack said.
Holovack said it’s important that a car seat is properly installed, or it will not provide proper protection to a children in case there is an accident.
“Around 95 percent are installed wrong,” added Mike McLaughlin, the department’s deputy chief. “Our mission is to provide safety.”
Statistics from the web site, saferide-4kids.com, show that in 2011 more than 650 children aged 12 and younger died as occupants in motor vehicle crashes. Thirty-three percent of the children who died in those crashes that year were not restrained. Incorrect use – or installation – of a car seat translates to a child being three and a half more times likely to be injured in a car crash, the web site said.
But, improper installation is not the only way car seats can be misused.
Car seats last around six years before needing to be replaced, Holovack said. Also if a car seat is in a crash, it should be replaced, he added.
“It may have sustained a hair-line fracture,” he said. “There shouldn’t be any after-market products around the car seat, like window shades, mirrors, or blankets.”
Holovack said people need to make sure car seats will fit in the vehicle’s back seat. The price of a car seat doesn’t matter either. A car seat that sells for $150 is basically the same as a $400 one, he said.
“It just has more padding,” he said.
To get a car seat installed, call the fire department at 724-941-4176.