Safe Kids Greater Augusta securing your child’s safety in the car

Isabella Moody
·2 min read

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WJBF) – Following an incident this week where a four-year-old was injured when he fell out of a moving vehicle, experts are reminding parents to make sure your kids are safe while in the car.

Safe Kids Greater Augusta has training and inspections on properly installing your child’s car seat.

“We do education and outreach, so we focus on low-income marginalized or children who are at risk for injury,” said Dawn Faircloth, WellStar MCG Injury Prevention and Safe Kids Greater Augusta Coalition Coordinator.

A Safe Kids Greater Augusta Certified Child Passenger Safety Technician teaches the training virtually.

“We do a monthly virtual child passenger safety class. It’s about an hour and a half to two hours. It is an educational class provided by a mini-grant through the Department of Public Health, and they supply all the information, the education, and stuff,” said Faircloth.

If you meet the financial criteria, they will also provide a car seat with the training.

“The car seats we distribute through our DPH mini-grant are between 5 and 65 pounds. It’s what we call a convertible seat. So, it kind of grows with them until they graduate to a booster seat,” said Faircloth.

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After the virtual lesson, they have a distribution day. The parents come in to put their child’s seat into the car to show that they understand and demonstrates the correct way to install the seat.

“The basic goal is for them to be able to install their child passenger safety seat the same way—the right way every time, no matter what vehicle they are in, the situation there, and that it is appropriate for the child’s size and age,” said Faircloth.

As well as with training, Safe Kids Greater Augusta also partners with others for the car seat checks. This is so anyone if they are unsure can double check their seat is in correctly.

“We partner with Columbia County Sheriff’s Office, Richmond County Sheriffs, and Richmond County Fire. They do seat checks as well. You can call them or go by and see if they can check your seat to make sure it is appropriately installed. I know our WellStar and MCG Health Police Departments do the same thing. They all have technicians available to check the seats,” said Faircloth. 

The following car seat check event is on Thursday, March 21st, at WellStar MCG Hospital.

For more information on training and car seat checks, you can visit WellStar’s Website.

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