NAMPA, Idaho — The Nampa Police Department provided child safety seat education Wednesday for anyone wishing to learn about or have their installations inspected.
- The Nampa Police Department provided six people certified by a national organization called 'Safe Kids' in proper car seat installation for guidance.
- Just like groceries, car seats do expire due to things like new technologies, being in an accident, and heat cycling.
- If you missed Wednesday's event, you can call the Nampa Police Department to schedule a one-on-one time with a certified officer at (208) 465-2257.
(Below is the transcript from the broadcast story)
The Nampa Police Department provided six people certified by a national organization called 'Safe Kids' in proper car seat installation Wednesday to help ensure child safety seats are properly installed. Twenty-four hours of training teach them about various types of safety seat technologies, vehicle seat belt systems, and even airbag locations.
Officer Deran Watt of the Nampa Police Department tells me, "At the end of the day, we want to make sure that the child is safe. So when they come to an event like this, we want to make sure we send them away safer than when they came."
Not only is Officer Watt one of the NPD's certified employees, but he's also an instructor in the certification.
"When you have new people coming through your class that you're teaching or instructing, what is the biggest takeaway that you've seen students come out with?" I asked.
"Coming into it, a lot of them wonder what could take so long for me to learn how to properly install a child safety seat," Officer Watt responds, "it's not one size fits all. The seatbelt systems in cars are designed to fit adults. So we have to make some changes to how they work to fit a child in a child safety seat or to install a child safety seat into a vehicle."
And just like groceries, car seats do expire due to things like new technologies, being in an accident, and heat.
"Over time with those temperature fluctuations, the plastic can become brittle. So our concern is that if we use a child safety seat for an extended period of time, when those components may have gotten compromised from the heat and the cold it, may not hold up when we need it to in a crash," Watt explains.
Car crashes are the leading cause of death for children in the United States according to the NHTSA. Parents were even able to walk away with a brand new, free child safety seat if they needed it.
Watt finishes by saying, "We wanna send them out of here with a seat that is not expired that's gonna make sure that it protects them in case they do get into a crash."
