South Florida Injury Lawyers Blog
Your child now has a new, fun and exciting way to learn valuable safety tips to help prevent child injury in Margate. Recently, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) teamed up with the popular animated series Chuggington and released a new video series. Throughout this series, children will be able to learn safe habits to practice around vehicles, whether they’re riding in a car, playing near parked cars, riding on buses, walking near traffic or bicycling near roadways. The new show will be targeting children ages 2 to 7, and will have online tips, a kid-focused safety pledge, and activities for parents to use with children.
“This exciting partnership with Chuggington will help us bring our traffic safety message to young children and parents alike,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.
Our Cooper City child injury attorneys understand that car accidents are the number one cause of deaths for children in the United States. More than 1,300 children under the age of 15 died in 2009 because of motor-vehicle accidents. Another 179,000 young children were injured in these accidents. There were more than 260 children in this age group who died in traffic-related pedestrian accidents. Approximately 115,000 young ones also were injured in pedestrian-related accidents during the same year. We encourage all parents to recruit the participation of their children to help them to learn lifelong safety habits that can potentially save their life one day.
Chuggington’s new video series will teach kids safety tips for school bus riders, pedestrians, car seat usage and bicycling. Throughout the videos, Chuggington and his friends will earn safety badges for performing safe behavior in dangerous situations. The characters will be taking the ‘Think Safe, Ride Safe, Be Safe!’ safety pledge. Your child is encouraged to take the pledge as well and to earn his or her very own Chuggington Traffic Safety badge.
This series was released just in time for National Child Passenger Safety Week. This week-long campaign was used to raise awareness in parents about the importance of properly buckling in children during every car ride. The NHTSA estimates that approximately 70 percent of all child car seats are improperly installed on U.S. roadways.
The latest child car seat recommendations:
-Younger than 1-years-old: These children should always ride in a rear-facing car seat in the back seat of a vehicle.
-Age 1- to 3-years-old: Children should be kept in rear-facing car seats for as long as possible. Once they’ve reached the height and weight limits for their car seat, you may move them to a forward-facing car seat with a harness.
-Ages 4- to 7-years-old: Keep them in a forward-facing car seat with a harness until they’ve reached the seat’s height and weight limits. Then a child should be moved to a booster seat that’s located in the back seat of a vehicle.
-Ages 8- to 12-years-old: Children should be kept in a booster seat until they can properly fit in a seat with an adult seat belt. he lap portion of adult seat belt should fit snugly across the upper thighs, and the shoulder portion of the belt should lie snugly across the shoulder and chest.
The Hollywood child injury attorneys at Freeman & Mallard have been successfully and aggressively representing accident victims and their families in Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, and Ft. Pierce /Port St. Lucie for years. Call us today to schedule a no-obligation appointment to discuss your case at 1-800-529-2368.
More Blog Entries:
Pregnant Mother and Unborn Child Killed in Miami Car Accident, South Florida Injury Lawyers Blog, August 23, 2011
New Report Ranks Florida First in Fatal Pedestrian Accidents, South Florida Injury Lawyers Blog, June 7, 2011