Aurora Holds Safety Event With Inventor Of Child Car Seats
AURORA, Colo. (CBS4) - Car accidents are the leading cause of death for children ages three to 14. It's something the Aurora Police Department wants to change, and they got some help from the inventor of the car seat himself.
Two-year-old Juliet and her family got lessons in car seat safety at an event held by Aurora police on Saturday.
"The seat belts were loose, the car seat moved," said Shawna Valdez, Juliet's grandmother.
Aurora police estimate more three quarters of car seats are not properly installed.
"That doesn't mean they are completely unsafe, but there's some error," Mark Elliot with Aurora police said.
The most common error is harnessing.
"If you can pinch the webbing, then it's not snug enough," Elliot said.
A good rule of thumb is there shouldn't be more than one inch of lateral movement with the car seat.
They are all rules that Aurora business owner Len Rivkin knows all too well. He's the inventor of the very first car seat back in the early 1960s.
"I came up with an idea of an "L" shaped steel seat," Rivkin said. "Up until 1962 a car seat for a kid was a canvas bag that hung over the seat."
Rivkin came up with the idea after a minor fender bender sent his then toddler son flying into the front seat.
"I realized that the car seats that they had then were not safe," Rivkin said.
Although over the last 50 years car seats have changed, their purpose and function has stayed the same -- to keep those like Juliet safe and secure.
"Belt clips were okay, but if I had been in an accident the car seat would have flopped over," Valdez said.
And longtime Colorado resident Rivkin holds a piece of that history.
"Yup, and that's how it all happened," he said.
The Aurora Police Department organizes free car seat checks about twice a month.
