If you’ve ever tried to install a car seat, you know it’s not always as simple as it seems. If you find yourself in need of some assistance, help is available.
Since 2011 View Royal Fire Rescue has been coming to the aid of residents through BCAA’s Child Passenger Educator program and has done so more than 1,000 times, averaging nearly 200 installs a year.
“We don’t install car seats, we teach you to install the car seat … We go over the installation of the seat and the child,” said Assistant Chief Rob Marshall. “I think it’s been a great success … We were doing it anyways, so it only made sense (to join the program).”
With more than a dozen different ways to put in the same seat and new seats hitting the market every month, it’s not always an easy process.
“With all of the changing laws and requirements, it’s confusing,” Marshall said. “It’s amazing the amount of variables that come into it.”
That’s why the department asks that participants phone ahead to book an appointment before coming in with a seat and that you bring manuals for both the seat and your vehicle.
This allows a check of BCAA’s car seat recall list. While these often affect minor parts and not the full seat, the department has seen many recalls parents weren’t aware of. Marshall noted that if you’re going to fill in one registration card, do so for your car seat – companies are then legally bound to notify you of any recalls.
While a number of the department’s day staff are trained as program educators, booking an appointment also ensures someone is available when you arrive. But first, “try installing it yourself … it just makes it a little quicker,” Marshall said.
From parents arriving with seats falling over – child and all – to panicking dads stopping en route to pick up mom and baby at the hospital, to seats facing in the wrong direction, the department has seen just about everything.
But one of the most common problems they see is seats that are too big, that residents have tried to squeeze into their vehicles. Marshall noted three-in-one seats are the worst offenders, as they are huge and physically won’t fit in some smaller vehicles. “There’s nothing worse than trying to jury-rig it in,” he said, recommending soon-to-be parents read the size requirements carefully before purchasing.
After taking the program’s training component, the department took a look at its members’ vehicles to see if their own car seats were installed properly. None were, although a number of faults were very minor ones. “That was a good indication for us,” Marshall said. “It can be very confusing … (and) you get a varying range of education out there.”
The department has seen firsthand the importance of proper installation. In 2011, crews were called to a rollover crash on the Six Mile Road off ramp near the Trans-Canada Highway. Strapped safely in the car seat was a baby suspended upside down in the car.
“The little guy was just in there with his soother,” Marshall said, recalling the surreal moment.
For anyone transporting a baby, Marshall said, “for piece of mind, send them by … we’ll go over it with grandma and grandpa as well.” People driving vehicles they don’t normally drive are welcome to drop in for a tune-up lesson.