With statistics showing that most parents buckle their little ones up incorrectly, a car seat technician is working to reverse that. Shelley Broadley is making Okotoks her next stop in educating motorist about the proper ways to strap in young children before getting behind the wheel. Broadley said studies show that 90 per cent of Albertans are doing it wrong. “Sometimes the harness will be in the wrong position for the child or the seatbelt has been routed through the wrong hole,” she said, adding it can result in the child being ejected from the seat or cause neck, head and spine injuries. “It’s the difference between walking way from a collision and a bad outcome.” Broadley has organized car seat clinics in Calgary, High River, Cochrane, Chestermere, Airdrie and the Tsuu T’ina Nation for three years, but struggles to find a place to host it in Okotoks. It Takes a Village opened its parking lot to the clinic June 23 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Broadley said she’s looking to host two to three clinics in Okotoks from April to October each year, so locations are key. The car-seat technicians are thorough, ensuring the seats are installed correctly while providing education, as well as removing the seats to check and record the make and model number, production date, expiry date and possible recalls, she said. Instruction manuals for the car seats can be quite elaborate, resulting in simple errors when it comes to installation, Broadley said. “We’ve gone through quite a bit of observational analysis on it and we’re finding that as car seats evolve with more features, the manuals are often difficult to read and parents are overwhelmed,” she said. To continue spreading education throughout southern Alberta around correctly strapping youngsters in, Broadley applied for a $25,000 grant through Alberta Transportation. With the grant money, she said local car seat technicians could reach more community groups, do more in-house sessions with parents and even have a presence at trade shows and other community events. The money would also be used to purchase car seats to donate to those in need and train more potential technicians. Ensuring youngsters are strapped in properly is near and dear to Broadley’s heart after her son received a kidney transplant from a five-year-old who was killed in a motor vehicle accident. “It’s something I don’t want other parents to have to experience, what the parent of the five-year-old who donated the kidney did,” she said. During this weekend’s clinic, donations will be accepted to support It Takes a Village, which provides essential baby supplies to Foothills families facing hardships the first year of baby’s life. To book an appointment at the car seat clinic go to Care Seat Techs of Alberta on Facebook.
