Indiana University of Pennsylvania’s Indiana County Highway Safety Project and the IUP Public Health Program in the Department of Allied and Public Health are sponsoring a car seat “take back” on April 3 from 10:00 a.m. to noon at IUP’s Zink Hall parking lot, 1190 Maple St.
Interns from the Public Health program, working with Indiana County Highway Safety Project Community Traffic Safety Project Coordinator Amy Shellhammer, will assist at the event, which is designed to collect unsafe car seats.
“Many unsafe car seats and boosters are bought and sold at yard sales, given to friends and family, or donated for resale by people who don’t realize they are unsafe,” Shellhammer said. “Some of these unsafe seats have been in crashes, have damaged or missing parts, are on recall, or are at least six years old. Used or expired car seats can be dangerous, especially if you don’t know that car seat’s history,” she said.
“A car seat collection allows these unsafe seats to be taken out of public use and disposed of properly. To help ensure a car seat won’t be used again, covers are removed, and the harness straps are removed or cut. We don’t want to leave anything to chance when it comes to the safety of our children,” Shellhammer said.
IUP will assist with the disposal process of the car seats turned in during the event.
The Indiana County Highway Safety Project is federally funded through the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. The grant focuses on the PennDOT District 10-0 counties of Armstrong, Butler, Clarion, Indiana, and Jefferson. The program is designed to offer information and education and to identify traffic safety issues within those counties.
Car crashes are the leading cause of death for children ages three to six and eight to 14, Shellhammer said.
Car seats can reduce the risk of fatal crashes by 54 percent for toddlers and 71 percent for infants, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. NHTSA also estimates that since 1975, having a child in the proper car seat restraint has saved the lives of more than 11,000 children under the age of five years old.
“This event provides our public health interns with a unique opportunity to apply their classroom knowledge in a real-world setting,” Professor and Director of the IUP Public Health Program Kristi Storti said. “By working directly with community members and safety experts, students gain valuable experience in health promotion, injury prevention, and public outreach—skills that are essential for their future careers in public health.”
Shellhammer is available for traffic safety programming. Contact her at Shammer@iup.edu or 724-357-1352.