Bringing awareness to car seat safety

Adelle Ellis
Times Reporter

 

After sharing her story and bringing awareness to used car seat safety on Global Edmonton, Emma Hunter, child passenger safety technician (CPST) for the child passenger safety association of Canada (CPSAC), wants to bring even more awareness on the dangers of misuse of car seats in Strathmore.
“There is more misuse of car seats than there is perfect practice,” said Hunter. “There are always lots of changes from the manufacturers and different uses for different seats. It’s a bank of knowledge the average person doesn’t know about. But we are car seat nerds and we love to learn about them and about changes and what is best with each seat,” she said.
Hunter got involved with CPSAC while she was living in Nova Scotia and was running a day home. She saw that there was a course being offered at the local hospital and thought it would be a good thing to learn because everything related to children and children’s safety is important to her.
CPSAC is a non-profit organization that brings awareness to the proper use of vehicle child safety restraint systems, mainly boosters and car seats. Most CPST’s don’t charge for a seat check; however, since the techs are doing it on their own time and their own dollar, donations are always welcome.
“We are passionate about it. We are passionate about sharing the education and information that we have and we are passionate about keeping children safe,” said Hunter.
CPST’s can do anything related to vehicles’ child safety restraints. Hunter does house calls, on her own time when it is convenient to her, to check over boosters and cars seats and make sure they are not expired, damaged, and are compliant. She will then use the manual to properly install it in your car during her checks. She can also put on clinics about proper use of child safety restraints, and she runs a Facebook page where people can ask questions about car seats and boosters and she will be able to answer them. She also posts about deals on car seats.
“The car seat has to fit your child, fit your budget, and fit your car properly,” said Hunter. “Not all car seats fit in cars and not all children fit in car seats.”
When she first moved here two and a half years ago with her family, they had nothing but the clothes on their backs. The community of Strathmore donated to her family so they could furnish their apartment and have things for their kids. Now, Hunter wants to pay back the community’s generosity by way of educating people and keeping their children safe.
“I want to pay it back and to help,” said Hunter. “It makes me feel good to help and I have been helped by the people here. I want to be a part of the sense of community that Strathmore has.”
The most important thing Hunter says to look for when buying a new car seat is to make sure it fits in your car properly, research the car seat ahead of time to make sure it will work well for you, to read the manual to ensure you set up your seat properly, to make sure you know how to use the seat properly, and if you have any questions at all to contact a CPST.
Hunter runs a Facebook page titled Car Seat Techs of Alberta ( www.facebook.com/CSRTAlberta) and encourages anyone to visit it if they have any questions.
When Hunter first moved to Alberta there were only 10 techs in all Alberta; now there are over 30. CPSAC is setting up more training opportunities in the future for any Albertans passionate about car seats or about child safety. But until then, you can contact a current tech to make sure your vehicle child safety restraint system is safe.
“I would love to get Strathmore a lot safer than they are and give more information to people. There needs to be a lot more knowledge out there on what is safest with car seats and boosters,” said Hunter. “The law (on car seats) is very basic and dated. Because laws take forever to change, rather than trying to get it changed we are just doing more and doing better and safer by our children because of our new knowledge based off studies done on car seats, while the law still stays the same. We are trying to promote what is safer for your children, not just the law.”
Hunter says the main things to know about buying used car seats is their history. You need to make sure the seat hasn’t expired, been in a collision or been recalled; isn’t missing parts, damaged, or been submerged in water or cleaned with chemicals, has the manual with installation instructions, make sure it has a national safety sticker and is 2012 compliant.
Some seats still in use were manufactured before 2012, but the compliancy law changed in 2012. Those seats are okay to use by your family but it is illegal to resell or give those seats away.
“If you need to use a used seat, then you need to know the history from it. And preferably get it from a good friend you trust and not just some random off Kijiji,” said Hunter. “The biggest thing is, would you trust this person (you’re getting the seat from) with your kids’ life.”