The Scottish in-car child safety partnership is to hold 50 free child car seat checking events as part of an annual programme to raise awareness of the dangers of incorrectly-fitted or inappropriate child car seats.
Founded in 2002, the partnership comprises Road Safety Scotland, police and fire and rescue services, local authorities, Arnold Clark and Good Egg Safety.
The 2016 car seat checking events will run from now until October and will target parents, grandparents and carers.
In last year’s campaign, 62% of child car seats were found to be incorrectly-fitted or incompatible with the child or the vehicle.
Michael McDonnell, director of Road Safety Scotland, said: “Many parents would be horrified to learn their child car seats are not fitted properly and, therefore, not providing the protection their children need.
“This campaign seeks to highlight that, not only by raising awareness of the issue and providing advice and guidance, but it also has a very practical element in that people can check the website, find the nearest car seat clinic and get the child-seat-car combination checked by an expert. It takes five minutes and could save a life.”
Sir Arnold Clark, chairman and chief executive of Arnold Clark Automobiles, said: “With the 2016 Good Egg in-car child safety campaign, parents, grandparents and guardians can understand the dangers of incorrectly-fitted car seats and ensure they’ve done everything in their power to protect their children.
“We are proud to be supporting the initiative and its excellent work raising awareness of car seat safety. I would encourage every person responsible for transporting children to read the guide and keep it on-hand in their vehicle.”
Venues, dates and times for the car seat clinics can be found on the Good Egg Car Safety website and Facebook page.
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