Peabody FD to offer child safety service

PEABODY – The Peabody Fire Department will soon join the ranks of neighboring communities who offer child-safety seat check points.Cities and towns such as Danvers, Saugus, Lynnfield and Marblehead have provided the service to their residents for years, and with three newly certified firefighters on board, Peabody will too.The initiative is part of the National Child Passenger Safety Program sponsored by Safe Kids Worldwide, an organization that works to prevent accidental childhood injury, and follows a curriculum set forth by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.Inspector Chris Dowling was one of the first firefighters in Peabody to be nationally certified as a passenger-safety technician.”The biggest issue is misuse and improper installation,” said Dowling. “Some parents don’t understand all the manufacturer’s instructions that go along with (the child safety restraint).”He said that the misuse gives parents and guardians a false sense of security.”Often times, the child has outgrown that type of restraint system, or the child is too small for that particular seat,” Dowling said.Other issues include recalled units that are not safe for parents to be using on their children.”We work with the manufacturers and Safe Kids to better inform the parents on some these major issues,” Dowling said. “We have a recall database that’s constantly updated. We require that people bring the manual or model number with them so we can check to see if it has been recalled.”And, in the event that the item has been recalled, the fire department hopes to be able to provide an on-the-spot safe replacement.”There’s no funding for this,” said Dowling. “But we’re looking for retailers that sell these seats to donate them to us?We’d like to start our program and be able to replace the recalled or incorrect seat. It’s our duty to make sure that child’s safe.”Dowling said that for quite some time now, people have been calling the fire department looking to have their seats inspected. The department was forced to defer them to other communities, as certified firefighters were not yet on staff.”Our goal is to have a (certified) firefighter on duty everyday so that if there is a situation where the seat must be corrected, then we have a certified technician available to get it done,” said Dowling, adding that four more firefighters will undergo training at the end of this month.For now, residents can call Fire Prevention at 978-531-2200 to schedule an appointment at the Peabody Fire Department Headquarters. The plan is to offer checks every other Friday beginning in February.”I hope that that fire department gets the word out for the importance of child safety restraints, and that parents and caregivers of these children take the opportunity to check their safety seats with us,” said Dowling.According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, motor vehicle crashes were the leading cause of death for Americans 2-14 years of age in 2006. It was also said that child-safety restraints reduced the number of fatal injuries by 71 percent for infants of less than one year of age and by 54 percent for toddlers 1-4 in passenger cars.