GROUP HELPS ID CHILDREN IN ACCIDENTS

If children become injured in a motor vehicle accident, how will they be identified?

Children typically don't have identification on them, and unless a parent or another adult remains coherent after the accident, identification of children might take several hours.

Post "M" of the Missouri Division of Travelers Protection Association of America, a group based in Cape Girardeau, wants children to be easily identified.

The organization, which has 1,300 members in the Cape Girardeau area, is distributing C.H.A.D. stickers that aid emergency personnel (and family) by identifying children injured in motor vehicle accidents.

C.H.A.D. stands for Children Have An iDentity.

The C.H.A.D. sticker was developed following a July 1992 accident in Illinois.

Consider Chad's story:

Chad, a 13-month-old boy, was riding in his child safety seat with a baby sitter when they were involved in a terrible accident.

The baby sitter was killed and Chad received serious injuries.

No one at the accident scene knew Chad's identity, but passers-by did remove Chad from the wreckage, and he was transported by ambulance to a hospital 10 miles away.

The car's registration didn't help in identifying Chad. The automobile was registered to the baby sitter's parents.

Chad ultimately received the medical treatment he needed and survived the ordeal.

His family, so concerned about identifying other children involved in similar accidents, contacted Brenda Edgar, wife of Illinois Gov. Jim Edgar.

Brenda Edgar and the Illinois Department of Transportation developed a child-identification sticker. The adhesive C.H.A.D. sticker should be affixed to the back of child safety seats.

"This is a good thing for us to get involved with," said Juanita Henley, C.H.A.D. committee chairwoman of the Travelers Protection Association.

Henley said her organization wants parents to place the C.H.A.D. stickers on the backs of child safety seats. She said by placing the sticker on the back of the seat, people looking through car windows won't be able to see the identification, but emergency personnel who respond to an accident involving a child will be able to flip the safety seat over for immediate identification, she said.

C.H.A.D. stickers are free at Jackson's police and fire departments, Scott City Police Department, Chaffee Police Department, Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department and Cape Girardeau's police and fire departments.