Are you a new parent? Have an infant or toddler who rides in car seat? Want to make sure you’re using the seat correctly?
The Snyder Police Department, with help from the Texas Department of Transportation, has a free event for you coming up from 2 to 5 p.m. Thursday, Sgt. Whitney Merket said.
“When they show up, a safety seat tech will check the vehicle, check the car seat, make sure the car seat is installed correctly, make sure the child fits in that car seat,” Merket said. “We make sure the car seats aren’t expired, and haven’t been involved in a crash or anything like that. Then we educate the parents or the guardian or whoever brings the child with the car seat in on how to properly install the car seat, some of the safety issues they need to look into.”
The police department helps organize two car seat checkups each year, but parents may stop by to have their car seats inspected and get assistance installing them just about any time, Merket said.
“We try to participate in two a year. We do one here in the spring at the police department. Of course, TxDOT helps us with both. Then the hospital does theirs in the fall,” she said. “I’m certified, we have another certified tech in our department.”
The techs at the car seat checkup will work with parents or prospective parents.
“We will educate them any way we can. We actually had parents before that are fixing to have a baby, and they brought their car seat in a box and said ‘Help me!’” she said.
Attending the car seat checkup can get a car seat violation ticket dismissed.
“We also partner with the municipal court on this, and if you’ve been issued a car seat violation ticket, this is one of the steps to possibly get that citation dismissed,” she said.
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