It’s Child Passenger Safety Week

Who knew? Car seats have a shelf life and it is six years. I certainly didn’t know that factoid until I came across an article about it being Child Passenger Safety Week.  The week started Sunday and in Utah, Primary Children’s Hospital, Salt Lake County, and Salt Lake City are working hard to raise awareness.  Salt Lake County released a list of locations where parents can recycle outdated car seats or those that are no longer needed.  The Road Home homeless shelter provided free car seats to about 70 families.  And all involved passed along reminders that everyone needs to be “buckled-up,” but especially those who need to have an adult do it for them.

There is also a push to have car seats registered when they are obtained for a child.  It helps manufacturers keep track of where their seats are in case there is a need to notify parents of a safety recall.  The six year rules comes from the realization that the plastic used to make car seats can become brittle and shatter in a crash.  With registrations, manufacturers can alert consumers when their car seats are approaching the shelf life. When they reach that point, recycle aged-out car seats and replace them.  If cost is an issue, look for resources to provide low or no-cost seat replacements.  There are options, it just takes a little bit of research.