For the Reporter

Along with the pencils, paper, backpacks and rulers; a car or booster seat may be exactly what’s needed to ensure your child’s success in school this year. Do you know the safest way for your child to ride in the car?

Most parents have a booster seat and use it for every trip. Others may allow their child to ride without a booster seat for short trips, putting the child in danger and risking a $124 ticket.

Ask Joshua Smith, of Auburn the importance of a booster seat.

Last week, he had his 6 year-old daughter buckled properly in her booster seat, when to avoid an oncoming car he hit a light pole at a crosswalk in Renton. He said he was glad his daughter has always listened to him about the importance of seat belts and her booster seat. It most definitely made a difference in her outcome. She escaped with a laceration on her right kidney and bumps and some bruises on her face and she is already back in school.

“I can’t stress enough the importance of having young children in correctly fitted booster seats,” Smith said. “I don’t even want to think what could have happened if I hadn’t had her in one. It’s too scary to even think about.”

Between Sept. 16-22, hundreds of certified child passenger safety technicians are available at convenient local sites to provide car seat inspections to parents and caregivers. Throughout Washington, child passenger safety teams are participating in National Seat Check on Saturday.

Drivers with child passengers are encouraged to visit an inspection station to have a certified technician inspect their car seat and give hands-on advice free of charge. “Children are at risk every time they ride in the car. The start of a school year is especially chaotic, when parents are dropping off or picking up their kids” said Cesi Velez, child passenger safety Project Manager, “The best way to protect your child is to make sure they are riding in the right child restraint for their age and size.”

To find out what is scheduled in your area, visit www.safekids.org/in-your-area/events.

The annual Child Passenger Safety Week is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The goal is to urge parents to learn about keeping their kids safe when riding in a car.