801 Crockett Street, Shreveport, Louisiana 71101
318/ 673-6655 ● FAX: 318/ 673-6656 ● www.shreveportfire.org

Kelvin J. Cochran, Fire Chief

March 21, 2002

PRESS RELEASE
To: Newsroom
For Immediate Release
Contact: Brian A. Crawford, Public Information Officer
Phone: 673-6652, cell: 455-2609, page: 675-2137

Shreveport Firefighters to Perform Child Car Seat Safety Checks

As part of a statewide initiative aimed at reducing the number of child passenger injuries and deaths, Shreveport firefighters will be busy this weekend performing child car seat safety checks.
The firefighters are part of a group that includes the Louisiana Passenger Safety Task Force and NW Louisiana SAFE KIDS Coalition, that will be offering the safety check service at Holmes European Motors, Inc., 1221 East Bert Kouns, from 1:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., this Saturday. Additionally, the department’s Fire Prevention Children’s Smoke House will be on hand to teach the value of fire safety.

The child seat checks are part of the fire department’s Public Assistance Link (PAL) program designed to promote child safety and help parents and care-givers keep kids that are traveling in automobiles safe. "Considering every 90 seconds, a child is killed or injured in a motor vehicle in this country: 2,100 under 16 years of age dead and 320,000 injured in 2001, and the fact that properly installed child safety seats can reduce the risk of death by as much as 70 percent in children, we urge every parent to take advantage of this opportunity," says EMS Officer and Certified Child Passenger Seat Safety Technician Mike Cook. Adding that four out of five car seats in use today are installed improperly.

The event if free and open to the public. Because of the upcoming busy summer months for children traveling on our roadways and the increase demand for the safety checks, The Shreveport Fire Academy recently completed a course for new safety technicians. A graduation ceremony for those new technicians will also be held Saturday . For more information, parents can call the department’s EMS offices at 673-6720. ###