Safety Seats

Reggie was hysterical. Tears streamed down her face. She'd tumbled into a cactus, the first she'd ever encountered, and painfully sharp needles were stuck in her ankle. Unfortunately, this time mom couldn't make it better.I'd left our well-stocked first-aid kit back in our hotel room, 20 miles away. The kids were incredulous that I'd been so dumb. So were the couple who happened by and kindly lent us theirs. In 10 minutes, thanks to a pair of tweezers, some antiseptic cream and bandages, Reggie was back climbing rocks.

We bought a car with two air bags, because we thought it would be safer. Now we have heard that air bags can kill children. Should we have the passenger side air bag taken out?Air bags have already saved at least 900 lives, so we do not think you should have yours removed. Air bags combined with correctly used safety belts are the best available protection for adults during deadly frontal crashes. We suspect that adults ride in your front passenger seat. They will benefit from the air bag, if the car is involved in a crash.

TO THE WOMAN in the blue Honda Prelude whom we had the pleasure of following for about six blocks on Gwynns Falls Parkway last week, learn to either flick off your turn signal or turn soon after you flick it on.Please.We're not overly upset and don't normally print the license tags of first-time offenders, but it was awfully annoying to follow extra cautiously behind you, awaiting a turn that never happened.This escapade began on Gwynns Falls just before Longwood Street, remember? That's when you turned on your right turn signal and slowed.

The Maryland Safe Kids Coalition and O'Donnell Pontiac will sponsor Child Safety Seat Check-up Day from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at the car dealership, 8800 Ridge Road in Ellicott City.The event is designed to "educate families on the importance of child passenger safety and to provide an opportunity to have their child safety seats checked by experts," said Barbara Beckett, Maryland Safe Kids coordinator.Maryland requires a child safety seat for children younger than 4 or weighing less than 40 pounds.

The Anne Arundel County Police Department won first-place honors in a national program for its work in promoting seat belts, child safety seats and air bags.The department captured the prize in the 1994 Challenge Awards Program of the International Association of Chiefs of Police on the basis of its traffic safety programs last year.Operation SEE (Safety, Education and Enforcement), a child passenger safety program; and a seat belt checkpoint at Anne Arundel Community College were two of the newest programs that helped the county department win the honors.

17 unsafe child seats turned in and crushedSeventeen unsafe child safety seats were crushed under the wheels of a 34-ton compactor at the county landfill yesterday morning.The seats had been turned in to C.R.A.S.H. (Carroll Resources to Advance Safer Highways) coalition for destruction.Additional safety seats, verified as being in good condition and never having been in a crash, will be used by the Carroll County Health Department Loaner Program. Anyone who cannot afford to purchase a child safety seat may apply to the department for a loaner, officials said.

The Carroll Resources to Advance Safer Highways Coalition, known as the CRASH Coalition, is planning a series of Child Passenger Checkpoints early next month after a Child Passenger Safety Awareness Week program.CRASH is working with law enforcement agencies in the county, the Department of Education and other groups.The child safety seat check will be educational and punitive, if necessary, members of the agencies involved said at a meeting at the county health department last week. Drivers whose children are placed incorrectly in a safety seat will be taught to protect their child properly.

When United Airlines flight attendant Jan Brown-Lohr encounters a parent holding a baby who could be strapped into a car seat on the empty seat next to them, she tells the parent her story.Ms. Brown-Lohr was a flight attendant aboard the ill-fated United Flight 232 the July day it crashed in an Iowa cornfield in Sioux City five years ago. Eleven-month-old Sabrina Nicholson flew out of her mother's grasp, landing in an overhead bin fifteen rows away. A passenger fleeing the plane rescued her.Twenty-three-month old Evan Tso wasn't so lucky.

In an effort to reduce traffic deaths and injuries, Westminster police and Maryland State Police are joining law enforcement officers across the country in a "Buckle Up, America" campaign. It starts tomorrow and runs through May 30.The nationwide campaign, which highlights the life-saving potential of safety belts, child safety seats and air bags, coincides with the start of the summer vacation season, when more vehicles are on the highways.Red, white and blue ribbons will be tied to the radio antenna of local police cars as part of the campaign.

Remember the days when car seats for infants and children were considered an optional luxury, much like air bags have been in recent years?Those were also the days when children suffered unnecessary injuries, many of them disabling or even fatal, in auto mishaps that for adults would have been little more than fender-benders.Without safety restraints, children, with their light body weights, are easily thrown around in a vehicle during any mishap, even a sudden stop that does not result in an accident.