(RURAL GEORGIA) Fire Rescue Units in Tattnall, Toombs, and Appling County worked triple tragedies last month and couldn’t help but wonder, “How could it happen here?”  Investigators  in these three neighboring southeast Georgia counties read the reports from three consecutive fatality crashes and realized highway safety has a heart breaker on their hands: In just nine days this January, they had as many unrestrained kids killed in car crashes here as died in the entire state without child safety seats in 2006. 

Part of the reason they’re baffled by this tragedy is that Georgia’s law for kids and car seats is really pretty straightforward:  Children under six are required to be restrained in the back seat of a vehicle in a federally approved child safety seat. Period.  The only technical part: That child safety seat must also be a size appropriate for the child’s height and weight. 

Then, at age six, child passengers can be restrained in a traditional, lap-and-shoulder belt. However, it’s strongly recommended that children remain in a booster seat until a safety belt fits them correctly across the lap and collar bone. Otherwise, serious injury can occur when seat belts don’t fit properly. Unfortunately, when adult drivers fail to follow these simple guidelines the consequences can prove deadly.  Crash investigators here say that’s what made January 2008 a tragic month for kids in southeast Georgia..

January 21, Tattnall County: Three-year-old Traniah Amonii Fleming from Reidsville, Georgia was killed when the vehicle in which she was a passenger careened out of control.  The unrestrained toddler was ejected from the vehicle; As was her mother and unrestrained 6-year-old brother.

January 28, Toombs County:  Three-year-old Janayla Howard of Lyons, Georgia was killed when the vehicle in which she was riding was involved in a five-car-crash.  Janayla was an unbuckled passenger.

January 30, Appling County: Just two days later, three-year-old Jasmine Goethe of Lyons, Georgia was unrestrained when her mother’s Ford Expedition struck another vehicle that failed to yield and then struck a utility pole.  Jasmine was killed in the crash that also killed her mother.

“We’re extremely concerned about this sudden and tragic loss of young lives in these neighboring southeast Georgia communities,” said Director Bob Dallas of Governor’s Office of Highway Safety (GOHS). “So we’re redoubling our efforts there to raise public awareness about Georgia’s child passenger safety laws and the lifesaving benefits of our occupant safety educational programs for parents and caregivers.  We want to make sure everyone who needs this information knows where and how to get it,” said Director Dallas.

To achieve this goal, GOHS is now scheduled to partner with local law enforcement agencies in Toombs County during Safe Kids week on April 29 and 30, 2008. The weekend will include multiple child safety seat check events to ensure the communities affected by the recent deaths will have several opportunities to receive proper training.

“I was shocked to hear of so many unrestrained child deaths in such a short period of time,” said GOHS Occupant Protection Planner Amy Edwards.  “GOHS will do all we can to support these counties and ensure children here are restrained correctly every trip, every time.”

Research demonstrates that child safety seats, when used correctly, can reduce the chances of a fatal injury by 71-percent for infants and 54-percent for toddlers in passenger vehicles. Bonnie Brantley, the Safe Kids Coalition Coordinator for Meadows Regional Medical Center in Toombs County, noted that while the recent traffic deaths of unrestrained children in her community were not deliberate, they were most likely preventable.

“No one would intentionally hurt their child,” said Brantley. “But it’s so important that parents take proper steps to ensure their kids are properly restrained.” In 2006, thirty-two-percent of children under the age of six who died in vehicle crashes were either improperly restrained or entirely unrestrained.

So car crashes remain the Number One cause of death for children in America. But those odds can be altered if adults know both the child safety guidelines in their vehicle owner’s guide and the instructions for their approved child safety seat. In addition, the following Four Steps for Kids are easy ways to make a child’s car ride a safer one:
1)  For the best possible protection keep infants in the back seat, in rear-facing child safety seats, as long as possible up to the height or weight limit of the particular seat.  At a minimum, keep infants rear-facing until a minimum of age 1 and at least 20 pounds;

2)  When children outgrow their rear-facing seats (at a minimum age 1 and at least 20 pounds) they should ride in forward-facing child safety seats, in the back seat, until they reach the upper weight or height limit of the particular seat (usually around age 4 and 40 pounds);

3)  Once children outgrow their forward-facing seat (usually around age 4 and 40 pounds) they should ride in booster seats, in the back seat, until the vehicle seat belts fit properly.  Seat belts fit properly when the lap belt lays across the upper thighs and the shoulder belt fits across the chest (usually at age 8 or when they are 4’9” tall);
4)        When children outgrow their booster seats, (usually at age 8 or when they’re 4’9” tall) they can use the adult seat belt in the back seat, if it fits properly (lap belt lays across the upper thighs and the shoulder belt across the chest).

“Georgia children continue to die due to a preventable mistake and the loss of even one life is one too many,” said GOHS Director Bob Dallas. “Parents and caretakers can help save lives by taking the simple step of making sure their children are properly restrained. When traveling anywhere by car, this step is too costly to ignore.”

Parents can significantly reduce the risk of their child being fatally injured in a traffic crash by just properly placing their child in an approved safety seat. A list of inspection stations located in Georgia communities at Health departments, fire and EMS stations and hospitals can be found on the GOHS website under "child safety seat inspection stations". For details on useful child passenger safety information visit www.gahighwaysafety.org or contact GOHS Occupant Protection Planner Amy Edwards at 404-463-0156 or aedwards@gohs.ga.gov .

Reporters or residents concerned about the recent child fatality crashes in southeast Georgia can contact Safe Kids Coalition Coordinator Bonnie Brantley at Meadows Regional Medical Center about child safety seat fittings or safety seat education assistance: call her at 912-277-2166.