Bear Behind
Whenever we're doing a child safety seat inspection event and finish up with a family, before they even start their vehicle we yell out CAR MOVING. This emphatic utterance alerts all others in the area to stop what they're doing, look around for children and keep them far from the moving vehicle's path. Kids are quick, kids are tiny, kids are trusting, kids don't see danger; that's our job as adults.
This is the time of year when parents call me asking about child safety seat inspections because their family will soon set out on a far flung journey in their internal combustion vehicle. They'll be traveling the freeways of the United States (the safest roadways around), and so sometime before this event they'd like to review the safety of their children. Of course, their children are at their greatest peril each day playing in their own driveway and being transported around their own neighborhood.
In 2007, 5,000 kids in the US were injured by the family car right in their own driveway or in a parking lot, and over 200 of those kids were whacked dead. How ridiculous is that? And, how quickly does that event change a family's life forever?
Make the driveway a place for moving cars and do not allow it to be used for play. And, the street, no matter what the speed limit sign says or how many warning signs are in place, is a place for cars and not kids.
Take the time (it won't take long, I promise) to walk around your car and make sure the area is clear of kids, toys, pets, shopping carts and me, no matter where your journey begins.
Remember that the #1 way to injure or kill a child is with a motor vehicle. And, that these injuries and deaths happen right around home. That's where we live, and that's where we drive: every day.
Be Safe.
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