BCAA is offering a free CPS (Child Passenger Safety) Basics Course as an online learning resource for parents, caregivers and professionals. The course will provide learners with the basic knowledge needed to secure children in vehicles and includes information on:
- What happens in a crash
- Protecting children in vehicles
- Using a seat belt system
- Using a child car seat
- Unsafe practice and problem solving
- Public education
Proper use of infant toddler and child car seats is saving lives. Over the past decade, the number of children under 12 who died in crashes dropped by 43 per cent, according to a new U.S. government report.
Health officials say the increased use of car seats and booster seats drove the decline. Still, one-third of the children 12 and under who died in 2011 were not buckled up. “The first step is buckling up. Every child, of every age, on every trip,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC report focused on crash deaths of children 12 and under and covered 2002 through 2011, when traffic fatalities overall declined to levels not seen since the 1940s. The CDC study was not designed to answer why the deaths of younger children declined. But experts credited a large growth in state laws requiring car seats and booster seats, and in programs that promote buckling kids up.
Health officials urge parents to keep all children 12 and under in the back seat, and use car seats and booster seats until seat belts fit properly. They recommend that car seats should face the rear up to age 2.
The information in the CPS Basics Course reflects current motor vehicle laws related to child passengers in the province of British Columbia.
