Need for help with child safety seats has only increased, area group says

As nationwide statistics continue to indicate around 70 percent of child safety seats are installed improperly, a local safe communities coalition is working to educate the public and provide seats to those who need them most.

The safe communities program in Cape Girardeau, in a partnership with the Southeast Roadway Coalition, has increased the number of child safety seat inspection stations from three to 25 in about five years. The program, which serves 14 counties in district 10 of the roadway coalition, has set up inspection stations in 12 counties throughout Southeast Missouri.

"We've been providing seats for 25 years in Cape Girardeau, and the need has only increased. It's certainly not decreased," said Sharee Galnore, a certified safety technician with the program since 1984. "In other counties there was a desperate need because they just had nothing and they didn't have the funding."

The program is assisted with funding through the Missouri Department of Transportation. Nearly 100 individuals are certified as safety seat technicians and are able to offer guidance to new parents.

"We don't put it in for them, we show them how," Galnore said. "If I install the seat for them, the very next time they take it out of the car I'm not going to be there, so they need to learn."

Properly installed child safety seats decrease the risk of death by 71 percent for infants and 54 percent for toddlers. For children placed in a belt-positioning booster seat, the risk of injury reduces nearly 60 percent.

While a high percentage of individuals incorrectly install a safety seat, Galnore said some of the inaccuracies are minor but some are serious. Many new parents don't read the installation instructions and struggle with whether the seat should be rear- or forward-facing.

"The instructions were so difficult to understand at one time that most people did misuse them. They've made a major push to make it more user-friendly so parents can understand what it is they're doing," Galnore said.

When asked to recommend a type of child safety seat, Galnore and Lynn Ware, a second technician with the program stationed at the Cape Girardeau Police Department, said to choose one that fits the child and is easy to use. If a seat is difficult to use, Galnore said, it's less likely the parent will take the time to learn how to use it correctly.

"Just because it's expensive doesn't make it better, sometimes it's just got some extra bells and whistles that are, in my opinion, going to fall off anyway," Galnore said.

Missouri's child restraint law requires children who are younger than 4 or weigh less than 40 pounds to be in an appropriate safety seat. Children ages 4 to 7 who weigh at least 40 pounds must also be in an appropriate seat. If the child weighs 80 pounds or is 4 feet 9 inches tall, then he or she can sit regularly in the back seat, wearing a seat belt. The newest addition to the law requires children 8 years old or weighing at least 80 pounds to be secured by a safety belt or buckled into a booster seat.

The fine for violating the child restraint law is $50, plus court costs.

To qualify for assistance through the safe communities program, parents must demonstrate some kind of need for the safety seat. Ware said parents on food stamps or who are referred from the state division of family services often qualify.

"We have a big demand here because we have two hospitals that deliver babies," Galnore said. "As long as we can continue to get roadway coalition money and as long as highway safety has money to buy seats, then those inspection stations will get their seats without having to purchase them."