Albany hosts annual Child Safety Seat Check Program

COLONIE-

Bill VanAlstyne checks out a car at the seminar to make sure the seatbelt and car seat are installed correctly. Photo by Kassie Parisi

Capital Region families brought their cars, and their car seats, to Sears at Colonie Center Friday afternoon to learn how to correctly install their children’s car seats.

The point of the seminar is to teach parents the correct, safe way to install the seats, and encourage parents to be able to do it themselves in the future, according to Bill VanAlstyne, the traffic safety instructor for the Albany County Department of Public Works Traffic Safety Education Program.

“There’s a lot of things that can go wrong with a car seat,” VanAlstyne said. He added that it’s “just hard” to install car seats safely and that it’s not necessarily the fault of the parents if the seats aren’t installed correctly.

At the seminar, parents brought in their cars and car seats and were able to watch as technicians checked to make sure the correct parts where in the car, to check the installation of the seat itself, and to make sure none of the equipment in the car had been recalled.

Even though techs helped parents with the seats, VanAlstyne stressed the educational aspect of the event.

“Families are bringing in what they transport their children in,” he said.

At the event, technicians inspected a total of 86 car seats, according to a press release. Out of those 86, only one car seat had been correctly installed.