Cops offer tips for installing car seats
TROY, N.Y. » Drivers for a local bus company were eager to learn new tips and tricks for installing car and booster seats from members of the Troy Police Department.
Robin Nichols has been a driver for Star and Strand Transportation Inc. for three years. She also trains other drivers. She and about 20 other Star and Strand employees attended the training session, held Tuesday at the company’s 360 5th Avenue headquarters.
“They showed us tricks of how to put the seat back, how to tighten it,” Nichols said.
Troy Community Police will, for free, meet with groups or individuals to make sure their car and booster seats are installed correctly, and will show people how to do it themselves, said Officer Karrie Hoover.
“If anybody has a seat they want inspected, they can call the community police and set up an appointment,” she said.
Community police can be reached by calling (518) 2704423.
Hoover does between 10 and 12 inspections per month.
“Friday I’ll be installing a bunch of seats,” she said. “A lot of people, they install the seats themselves and they just want to make sure that they’re done right.”
Often, the seat isn’t installed correctly, she said. “It is com- mon. Half the time it’s usually loose or the straps are twisted.
The majority of the time when we do inspect the seats they are installed wrong.”
Scott Thorner, transportation manager for Star and Strand, said the idea to have police train employees came from the company’s newly formed safety committee.
“We want to make sure we’re doing it as safe as we can, make sure we’re doing it right,” he said. “Two of our trainers are here, and they’ll train all of the other employees over the course of the next couple of months.”
Star and Strand employs about 80 drivers and 70 monitors, he said. The company focuses on transporting young children with special needs across Rensselaer County. Tuesday’s training was for installing child seats in vans. A separate session will have to be held for the larger buses.
Thorner said normally they do this sort of training in-house.
“This is the first time we’re having the police do it,” he said. “We’ve always taught it ourselves, but we figured we’d make sure we’re doing it right.”
Hands- on trainings are good learning opportunities, said Amy Fayoumi, a driver and trainer for Star and Strand.
“I do a lot of the trainings, especially for the car seats and the boosters,” she said. “This was very useful.”