LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Child Passenger Safety Week, Sept. 21-27 emphasizes the importance of safely transporting children throughout their childhood.
During this week and year-round, the Stanardsville Volunteer Fire Department is encouraging parents and caregivers to buckle up their children on every ride and to educate children about safety in and around vehicles.
Riding unrestrained is the greatest risk factor for death and injury among child occupants of motor vehicles. During 2007 alone, 21 children under the age of 16 died and 471 were injured as a result of being unrestrained in a motor vehicle crash.
Unfortunately, many of these tragedies could have been prevented if children were properly restrained within the motor vehicle.
Despite the efforts of conscientious parents who use child safety seat, many are unaware that they are using the seats incorrectly.
Parents can help establish safe patterns of behavior by making sure that children age 12 and under always ride buckled up or in properly installed child safety seats or booster seats in the back seat. Rear-facing seats should never be placed in the front seat of a motor vehicle equipped with an air bag.
It is important for parents to make sure that anyone who transports their child does so properly. Unfortunately, many parents believe that once their child has outgrown his or her forward-facing child safety seat, an adult seat belt offers adequate protection. But, suing seat belts alone to secure small children can be dangerous.
A shoulder belt designed for an adult can cut across a child's neck and the lap belt can ride up over the stomach, which could cause a serious or fatal injury in a crash. That is why we encourage parents to put children around ages 4 to 8 years-old and under 4-feet-9-inches tall in booster seats.
A booster seat positions the lap and shoulder belts correctly, low over the hips and upper thighs and snug over the shoulder. For more information on child passenger safety, call the Virginia Department of Health, Division of Injury and Violence Prevention at 1-800-732-8333 or visit its web site at www.safetyseatva.org to learn of locations to get your child safety seat or booster seat inspected and installed correctly.