METAIRIE, LA – The Louisiana Passenger Safety Task Force (LPSTF), in association with University Medical Center New Orleans (UMC), will offer free child car seat inspections in conjunction with National Seat Check Saturday and Child Passenger Safety Week.
On Saturday, Sept. 23, a scheduled event will take place at Southeast Louisiana Council Boy Scouts of America, 4200 S. I 10 Service Rd. W., Suite 101, in Metairie, from 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Professionals will be on hand to ensure that child safety seats are properly installed and help make any needed changes.
In addition, professionals taking part in the events will install safety seats that local SONIC Drive-in restaurants recently donated to needy families. Employees of Louisiana’s 147 SONIC Drive-ins raised $55,000 through sales of the 2016 Sonic “Tot” calendar. Over the past two years, Louisiana SONIC employees have raised a total of $103,000, which has purchased 1,848 car seats.
“Safety seats are crucial in preventing childhood deaths and injuries, but the seats must be installed correctly,” said Bridget Gardner, RN, community injury prevention program coordinator at UMC New Orleans. “We strongly encourage all families with safety seats to take advantage of these free checks.”
LPSTF is a network of certified child passenger safety technicians who work to correct the installation of child restraints, encourage child safety seat and seat belt usage in motor vehicles, and provide resources to technicians and the community to reduce injuries and deaths from motor vehicle crashes. The LPSTF is an injury prevention special interest group run by the UMC Trauma Program.
