L+M to offer free car seat inspections
New London — A program to inspect child car seats that began at Lawrence + Memorial Hospital before its funding was cut will return to the hospital in August.
The car seat inspections were a service of Safe Kids New London County, which Lawrence + Memorial Hospital left in 2013 as part of cuts due to declining revenues. Inspectors taught more than 1,000 families how to install their car seats in the year before it was canceled and distributed free car seats to qualifying low-income families.
The program was run by the Child & Family Agency of Southeastern Connecticut until 2016, when it became a nonprofit organization called The Safety Group of Connecticut and began holding car seat inspection events independently.
Volunteers with The Safety Group teach parents how to adjust straps, give them advice on when to switch to booster seats and tell them whether their seats have expired or been recalled. They also tell people about updates in state car seat laws, which changed in Connecticut last year to require all children to be placed in rear-facing car seats until they are 2 years old or weigh 30 pounds.
“We go over all those pieces to make sure all the people in the car are safe,” said Esther Pendola, a co-owner of The Safety Group. “If you’re involved in a car crash, the likelihood of severe injury or fatality is greatly reduced by having your car seat professionally checked and installed.”
Pendola said because car seats eventually expire — meaning that, after time, they are less effective in a crash — and each model has its own instructions, the subject can cause confusion for new parents, or even ones who have been driving their children around for years.
She said she often sees people who have incorrectly installed or expired car seats.
“It doesn’t matter your socio-economic status — people (are) doing it wrong across the board,” she said.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration-certified instructors with The Safety Group, based in Waterford, have conducted more than 15,000 car seat safety checks and installations.
The Safety Group will start conducting its free safety checks by appointment from 4 to 7 p.m. every Thursday starting Aug. 9 on the first level of the L+M parking garage. The inspections take about 30 minutes but can take longer depending on how many car seats are in the car. To make an appointment, call The Safety Group at (860) 574-9724.
The garage, which will be heated so inspections can continue during the winter, is the same location where Safe Kids New London County Coalition used to conduct the inspection before 2013. The Safety Group will continue to provide ad-hoc inspection events at other locations like firehouses but the L+M inspections will be its only regular stop.
“It’s going to be a consistent site with regular hours that people will ... get famil- iar with and know,” Pendola said.