Community Thank You
Car Seat Clinic

My name is Sharon Hartwell and I am a certified child safety passenger technician. This is the third year Carroll County Farm Bureau Inc. has invited me to help with a child safety car seat clinic.

Iwant to thank each and every one of these farmers, parents, and caregivers for holding this event. It takes a lot of hours to organize this event, and they continue to do it. This year was a record with 75 seats checked. We only had eight that did not have any type of misuse and we replaced 39 seats. Nine out of every 10 seats in Indiana have some type of misuse.

Some of the misuse observed included:

1. A lack of instructions with the seat.

2. Harness clip or harness in the seat not properly tightened.

3. Seat not tightened in vehicle.

4. Unsecured items in the vehicle.

5. Recalled seats.

6. Seats older than recommended 5-6 years.

7. Seats used after being involved in any type of vehicle crash.

Vehicles began to line up at 7:40 a.m. The last vehicle was checked at 12:45 p.m. The whole purpose of these car seat clinics it to make sure the child leaves safer then when they came in. Clinics do not have to provide replacement seats, and many are not able due to lack of funds. This clinic could not replace the seats if not for the gracious contribution from Farm Bureau Inc.We had some of the parents during the clinic make donations,whichweremuch appreciated.

Thank you to the following: families that came to have their car seats checked, technicians from Carroll County Sheriff's Department, White County Sheriff'sDepartment, andWhite County Memorial Hospital, insurance agents from Lafayette, senior checker Shelly Tansey, and all of the volunteerswho assisted with the event.

White CountyMemorial Hospital has a permanent fitting station that checks child safety seats by appointment. Call 574- 583-7111, ext. 241.