Programs: Child Passenger Safety >> Parents and Care Givers

Safe Kids Sonoma County provides opportunities to help parents and caregivers learn about safety in and around cars. Safety seat instruction manuals can be difficult to understand and follow. See the links below for information on how to select a car seat and install it properly.

Motor vehicle crashes are not the only child passenger safety issue. In 2006, KIDS AND CARS reported 568 incidents where children were left unattended in or around motor vehicles. These incidents involved 696 children and 205 of the children died.

Forty-nine percent of the deaths were from back-over's, when drivers do not see a child behind their cars. Twenty-three percent were from heat stroke after being left alone in a car or by a child getting in the car and not being able to get out. Eight percent of the deaths were caused by an unattended child setting the car in motion.

Please see the safety information section to learn more about how to prevent these tragedies.

What We Do

• Free bilingual car seat fitting stations are held monthly at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital's Ambulatory Surgery Center. We offer low cost car seats to income eligible individuals. Please call Karli at 525-5300 x3264 for more details.

  To participate:

  • Make an appointment. Call 525-5300 x3264. Appointments are necessary. Each Child Safety Seat check appointment is 1 hour long.
  • Bring your Child Safety Seat, any accsessories and attachments that came with it, the car seat installation instructions/manual, your vehicle owner's manual and the child who will be using the seat.
  • Please make sure that the seating area (vehicle seat & floorboard) of your car is clear of toys and food so that our technicians have enough space to work and instruct you on the installation of your child restarint(s). This will also help in reducing the spread of germs from vehicle to vehicle.
  • Please note that we do not work with Child Safety Seats that are expired or more than 5 years past the manufacture date, if no expiration date is visible.
  • Expectant parents should have the Child Safety Seat checked at least one month before the baby is due. Register early to get the best available appointment time.

• Car seat check up events are held by Safe Kids Sonoma County partners about four times per year in the county. Parents sign up for an appointment with a certified car seat technician and learn how to install their child’s car seat properly. Often, low-cost car seats are available for low-income families attending the event.

• Child passenger safety resources are available throughout Sonoma County. The following document show all of the places in the county where parents can make appointments to get their child’s car seat checked, as well as car seat education and distribution programs.

  Child Passenger Safety Resource Sheet-bilingual
  

• Health fairs provide the opportunity for Safe Kids Sonoma County to be a visible resource for parents. At these events, we distribute child passenger safety information and educate parents on child safety in and around cars.

Legislation and Policies

Safe Kids Sonoma County advocates for legislation and policies that help keep children safe. We are proud of our efforts to help strengthen the booster seat law and are excited that effective January 1, 2012 all children under 8 years old or 4"9' must be restrained in the back seat in a child restraint when riding in any motor vehicle. For more information, click on the links below:

• All new car seat laws effective January 1, 2012 [English & Spanish]
• Link to 5-step test for booster seat safety [English & Spanish]
• Booster Seat Law Flier [English & Spanish]
• Fact sheet for helping parents understand California's new booster seat law

Hospital policy

Depending on the hospital, an infant may be required to have a car seat at discharge. Please check with the hospital's policies and procedures.

Documents

See our Resources section for a list of helpful documents on child car safety.