Free child safety seat clinic coming to Kona

Families can attend a free child safety seat clinic this Saturday, Feb. 11, hosted by the Hawai‘i Police Department in partnership with Target, Kona Community Hospital, the Hawaii Department of Transportation and other community organizations.

Certified technicians will be on hand in to assist families with the proper installation of child safety seats, check for any factory recalls on seats and vehicles, and answer questions.

“With car crashes a leading cause of death for children nationwide, it’s vitally important that parents make sure their child’s safety seat is installed correctly,” said Torey Keltner, of the Hawai‘i Police Department’s Traffic Services Section.

The clinic will take place from 9 a.m. to 12 noon in the Kona Target parking lot on Makala Boulevard in Kailua-Kona.

“This is a great free service for parents to check their child’s safety seat and get answers to any questions they may have. Our kids are worth the effort to check their car seats,” Keltner said.

According to 2019 data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the most recent year for available data, an average of two children under the age of 13 were killed and 374 were injured everyday in the U.S. while riding in cars, SUVs, pickups and vans. Thirty-eight percent of the children who died in 2019 while riding in passenger vehicles were unstrained.

For more information on Saturday’s child safety seat clinic, please contact Sandy Tomiyama, volunteer with Partners for Safe Keiki, at (808) 896-1940.