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Study finds one in four parents don’t always buckle in their kids

Jodi Loomis knows a thing or two about car seats. “I’m not crazy about the boosters, ya know, the ones that they just sit on,” said Loomis. The mom...
Child in car seat

 

Jodi Loomis knows a thing or two about car seats.

“I’m not crazy about the boosters, ya know, the ones that they just sit on,” said Loomis.

The mom of four is very cautious about the seat that protects her youngest.

“We got this seat probably about three years ago so I wanted to make sure that it’s safe for him, because like I said safety first, if anything happened to one of my kids, I wouldn’t know what to do,” said Loomis.

She was one of about 20 to drive in to the Rock Island Fire Department Saturday, not to see firefighters, but instead a crew of child passenger safety techs in orange t-shirts.

“It’s a wonderful thing to see these seats prevent crashes as much as they do and it’s the whole reason why we’re out here today,” said Jason Wilson, a child passenger safety tech.

Part of the Safe Kids Quad Cities, the techs check to see if the seats are recalled and if they’re installed properly.

“We see about a 96% misuse,” said Keene Hart, Coordinator of Safe Kids Quad Cities.

A new study out this month from Safe Kids Worldwide, says some parents aren’t even trying.  The organization surveyed 1,000 parents about their child care safety habits; one in four said they’ve driven without buckling in their child.

“I’ve been doing this for fifteen years, so I know that it’s true, but it’s scary, it’s a scary thought when you think about the people that are out there,” said Hart.

Unthinkable for Loomis.

“It disgusts me, why would you not want your child to be safe?” she asked.

According to the Safe Kids Worldwide Study, in 2011, almost 700 kids died in a car crash, one third of them were riding in cars without a car seat or seatbelt.

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