Free child seat safety clinic helps parents test their personal safety level

WHAT: How safe are your child's safety seats? Surprisingly, a significant number of child and booster seats on the road today are not as safe as one may think, because they're not being used properly. Even a brand new, top-of the-line child seat will not provide adequate protection for a child, if it's not latched in properly. And, significantly, there are a number of car seats that are being used actively that are either too old--or defective.

To help ensure safer driving for all children, Allan M. Block Agency Inc. is working with the Greenburgh Police Department and Tarrytown Honda to hold a free child seat safety inspection event. The event will give parents and guardians the opportunity to have child safety seat technicians conduct a top-to-bottom inspection of the fit and safety of the child and booster seats found in their cars.

With more children on the road, it's important to remember that, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), more than 40,000 child passengers under age four are injured or killed in car crashes annually. Furthermore, improperly installed child seats play a part: NHTSA reports that 80 percent of child safety seats in vehicles today are used incorrectly.

"Sometimes it's the minor things that have the potential to create serious problems," said JoAnne Murray, President of Allan M Block Agency. "Child seat safety is something about which people need to be better educated, which is why we're holding this clinic. If just one of the inspections we conduct could prevent a child from being seriously injured from an auto accident, then this clinic would have been well worth it."