LASD Palmdale Station: Enforcement of child-safety restraint laws

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LASD Palmdale Station - Palmdale, California - March 25, 2014

The Palmdale Sheriff Station will be partnering with “SafteyBeltSafeU.S.A.” and the City of Palmdale Public Safety Office in raising awareness of child seat/restraint use during a special enforcement week. The specialized enforcement week will be from March 23rd through March 29th. During this week the deputies on patrol will be making a special effort to strictly enforce child restraint laws.

Strong enforcement of these laws has been shown to be one of the most effective ways to increase restraint usage, thus lowering the possibility of serious or fatal injuries to vehicle passengers 16 years of age or younger.

According to data provided by the California Highway Patrol, more than 80% of the children under four years of age killed in traffic collisions since 1990 died in survivable crashes. What this means is if the parent had properly buckled their children in, these children may have survived the crash.

Many people do not realize that California law requires children, regardless of age, to ride in a safety seat or booster seat if the safety belt doesn’t fit properly. Another point is that most parents use the safety seats improperly, even though they believe they are using them properly. Another problem related to child seats is recalled child seats due to deficiencies or malfunction issues. Over 20 million safety seats have been recalled and many of those recalled have not been repaired.

Please join with the Sherriff’s Department Palmdale Station in making an effort toward keeping your children safe and properly restrained while riding in your vehicles. They are depending on you to keep them safe. Don’t let them down.

- Information provided by Sgt. Mark Johnston, Deputy Jodi Wolfe