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| Five-Year-Old Used to Promote Child Safety Seats |
It's one thing to hear some official tell you to buckle up your kids properly in the car. It's another to hear a 5-year old boy tell you that he's alive because his father did just that.
Ben Hardiek of Springfield and his dad, Brad Hardiek, were driving home one night last year when they were hit from behind by an alleged drunk driver. Their truck rolled, and part of the roof was caved in. Because of their story, Ben is now part of the campaign to teach more parents to properly install child safety seats, and to help low-income families obtain such a seat.
The Illinois Department of Transportation, AAA and Evenflo are teaming up to offer 67 child safety seat checks across the state Saturday. Officials say it's a critical check, because four out of five seats are installed incorrectly. But Illinois leads in this area, according to officials. Michael Witter, regional administrator for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, says he considers Illinois to be one of the safest states.
Witter says statistics from 1975 through 2007 show that nearly 9,000 children survived crashes because they were properly buckled in safety seats.
Area Locations Conducting Child Safety Seat Checks Saturday
(Source: AAA/Illinois Department of Transportation)
Kewanee: Wal-Mart Supercenter Parking Lot, 10am-2pm
Peoria: Kohl's Parking Lot, 4100 W. Willow Knolls Drive, 1pm-4pm
Rock Island: Rock Island Fire Department, 1601 30th Street, 9am-12pm
(Note: there appear to be none in the immediate Galesburg area providing such checks.)
(Illinois Radio Network) |
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| 09 11 09 by Newsroom |
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