Many parents of children under the age of four do not use child safety seats. Additionally, statistics show that over 90 percent of child safety seats are not installed properly.

GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

The goals and objectives of the Kauai Child Restraint Program are to:

• Reduce motor vehicle deaths and injuries for children under the age of four by increasing the proper use of child safety restraints on the island of Kauai by ten percent;
• Provide two, joint check-up joint training sessions for police officers and child passenger safety technicians prior to child safety seat checks;
• Conduct a media campaign to inform the community about child safety seat checks; and
• Conduct a minimum of eight child safety seat checks with the police department and certified technicians.

STRATEGIES AND ACTIVITIES

Kauai Police officers work vigilantly to enforce child passenger safety seat laws. When cars are stopped at an intersection, police look into the cars to see if children under the age of four are in child safety seats. If the child is not in a child safety seat, the officer signals the driver to pull over. Violators can receive either a citation or a free child safety seat check. If the violator chooses the car seat check, a Kauai Police officer escorts him/her to a nearby car seat checkpoint that is provided by the Kauai Keiki Injury Prevention Coalition. (“Keiki” is the Hawaiian word for child.)

RESULTS

The following results were achieved during fiscal year 2002:

• There were no deaths among child passengers under the age of four as a result of motor vehicle crashes in Kauai (county).
• Six of the eight scheduled child safety seat checks were performed (two cancelled due to bad weather) resulting in the Kauai Keiki Injury Prevention Coalition checking a total of 98 seats. Kauai Police Department also performed safety seat checks during other checkpoint activities. The radio and print media were used to inform the public about child safety seat checks.
• The following training sessions were held: 1) a mini Child Passenger Safety (CPS) course for 14 police recruits, and 2) a four-day CPS course for the police department resulting in ten new CPS certified technicians.