As hurricane season devastates the country, many desperate residents have found themselves facing danger in the place they hoped would take them to safety: their cars.
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The 5 worst car seat mistakes parents are making
After the other driver ran a red light and plowed into her minivan, Christine Miller of Santa Clarita, Calif., looked in the back seat for her son Kyle, but he had been thrown from the vehicle and was gone forever.“If the scars on my heart were visible, people would gasp every time they saw me,” says Miller. Three-year-old Kyle was sitting in a legal booster seat and strapped in by a seat belt at the time of the collision. “Had I just known about the dangers of booster seats for toddlers, had somebody warned me, I would have kept him in a five-point harness car seat,” says Miller. “That’s the dagger that twists in my heart.” She’s not alone. Car accidents are the No. 1 killer of children ages 0 to 19 in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Safe Kids Worldwide says car seats can reduce the risk of death by as much as 71 percent, but they have to be installed and used correctly. More than half of them aren’t.
How to Escape Your Car if You're Stuck During a Flood or Storm
Drivers and their passengers are at risk to become stuck or stalled as water rises, and in some instances can be carried off by moving water or left unable to avoid collapsed trees or sections of road.Motorists should know how to escape their vehicles should the roads become too dangerous, Janette Fennell, founder and president of KidsAndCars.org, told InsideEdition.com.Lawsuit filed to force DOT to issue rear seatbelt warning rule
KidsAndCars.org and The Center for Auto Safety filed suit in federal court Wednesday to compel the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to implement a law passed by Congress in 2012, and issue a standard requiring a rear seat safety belt warning system. “They were set to meet the deadline by October of 2015,” said Amber Andreasen, Director at KidsAndCars.org. “Two years later, it’s 2017 and they have yet to issue the rule. In fact, there hasn’t even been a proposed rule.” Nearly 1,000 unrestrained rear seat passengers were killed in 2015 alone.
DCFS releases PSA announcement reminding to keep kids and pets safe in and around cars
In the summer, a car can heat up to 90 degrees in less than 10 minutes so it is never a good idea to leave a child alone in a car for any amount of time; and it is against the law in Illinois. “If you see a child in a hot car alone, dial 9-1-1 immediately,” says DCFS Acting Director BJ Walker. “Your sense of community and your intervention can help prevent a tragedy and save a life when minutes and even seconds matter.”
What’s more dangerous for your child in a car seat — a coat, or the cold?
Advocacy groups are telling parents to remove their child’s coat before putting them in the car seat. But that also leaves the child vulnerable to hypothermia after an accident.
