Floyd County Sheriff's Office promotes National Child Passenger Safety Week

Duration: 2:04 445 transcript words EN summary

Video summary

National Child Passenger Safety Week begins on Monday, September 21st, and the Floyd County Sheriff's Office is actively participating to educate the public on vehicle safety. The primary goal of this initiative is to ensure that parents and grandparents are correctly installing child safety seats in their vehicles, a crucial step aimed at reducing the risk of injury during travel. Sheriff John Hunt emphasizes the importance of bringing awareness to these details, noting that many people are unaware of the legitimate and proper methods required for securing these seats effectively. To support this effort, the sheriff's office has deployed trained inspectors who are available eight hours a day, five days a week at their office to assist the community. These experts can examine a family's child safety seat to verify that it is intact, that the belts are tight, and that all safety features are functioning correctly. Sheriff Hunt highlights that even minor adjustments, such as ensuring the straps run through the proper grooves designed for the seat belt or tightening loose components, can significantly enhance safety. He notes that it is common for seats to require periodic checks and corrections, which these inspectors are ready to provide. Beyond direct assistance at the office, the campaign serves as an educational opportunity for parents to better care for their children and share this knowledge with friends and relatives. The sheriff points out that when individuals seek help, they often discover necessary adjustments that could have prevented accidents in the past. By spreading this awareness, educated family members can help one another install seats correctly, potentially saving lives. Ultimately, the message is clear that paying close attention to these small but vital details ensures a safer environment for children traveling in cars.

Read the full video transcript

Monday, September 21st is the first day of National Child Passenger Safety Week, and the Floyd County Sheriff's Office is doing their part to inform the public. They want to make sure parents and grandparents are properly installing child seats in their vehicles to reduce the possibility of injury while traveling. Floyd County Sheriff John Hunt tells us more. >> Bring awareness and try to just make sure that people are uh paying attention to details on their child safety seat, that they're buckled in right and properly. And most people don't know that there is an actual, you know, legit way to do those and put them in correctly. But, um, and that's all it is is that it to bring awareness of of that and to make sure that people take the time to, uh, look at their child safety seats periodically, check for safety features, make sure that they're the seats intact, the belts tight, and we do have inspectors here, um, that have been trained to to install these seats that are here at the office eight eight hours a day, five days a week. So if anybody wanted to come by even [clears throat] and have somebody to look at their safety seat, they can do that. >> Hunt says this is an educational opportunity for parents who want to better care for their children. Parents can then tell their friends and relatives with children and potentially save a life. You'd be surprised obviously uh when if somebody comes by and asks one of our guys to go out and look at their seat, they'll make some kind of adjustment or correction that was improperly probably or not snug at least, you know, a couple times a month that somebody will ask and and want help with. The more education you get, the more awareness you have and uh pay attention to your sibling, you know, your brother or sister who's putting in a car seat and and to know that and be educated on it and to help somebody else put it in correctly uh may save a life. You never know. Some of these you can get in somebody's car seat and and look at how they're tightened up and some of them will be loose. Uh they just need to be snugged in good and tight and run through the proper uh grooves in the back of the seat that the that's made for the seat belt to run through. Just little things that uh can really ensure a little bit more safety of the of the car seat installment. Reporting for Mountaintop News, I'm Nick Colum.