Special to The Gazette
TIFTON — The Tift County Health Department was recently awarded a 2010 Car Seat Mini-Grant from the Georgia Department of Community Health, through the Division of Emergency Preparedness and Response, Injury Prevention Program.
The Tift County Health Department and the Tift County Sheriff’s Office work together to provide car seats and child passenger safety education to financially eligible families in Tift County. The Governor’s Office of Highway Safety funds this program to help ensure that Georgia’s children are safe while riding in motor vehicles.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration states car seats reduce fatal injuries by 71 percent among infants, and by 54 percent among children between the ages 1-to-4 years old, who ride in passenger cars. Car seats offer the best protection for children in the event of a crash, and they are most effective when installed and used correctly. Three out of every four car seats are not properly used, leaving these children less than optimally protected.
“It’s our responsibility to keep our children safe,” said Traci Mullis, nurse manager of the Tift County Health Department. “The car seat mini-grant is a great opportunity to help reduce the number of young lives lost in crashes.”
In Tift County, the health department and sheriff’s office educate parents and caregivers on how to properly install and use car seats, offer car seat inspections and provide car seats and booster seats to financially eligible families. Agencies supporting more than 125 counties are using the grants.
For more information about the Tift County car seat program, contact the health department at 386-8373.
