MOORPARK : Program Offers Free Safety Seats for Kids

They’ve used graphic films, stern lectures and friendly persuasion to get Spanish-speaking immigrants to use car seats for their children.

Now Adelante, a program run by the Moorpark division of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department, will try giving the seats away.

The Sheriff’s Department bought 20 child safety seats at a discount from K mart; the seats will be given to needy Latino families with children at a meeting tonight.

Because of social and cultural differences, a higher percentage of Latino families do not use child safety seats, said Senior Deputy Jerry Hernandez, one of two officers with Moorpark’s Adelante program.

“Studies by the (California Highway Patrol) have shown that in areas where programs like this are started, those percentages drop,” he said.

Adelante, nearly a year old, uses bilingual officers to address law enforcement concerns of the Spanish-speaking community in Moorpark. Often, Hernandez said, new immigrants have a distrust of law enforcement officers, based on uneasy or contentious relations with authorities in their native countries.

The cultural differences and language barriers also account for the lack of understanding about some of the laws in California, said Hernandez’s partner, Deputy Albert Miramontes.

“Many of these migrants are recently from Mexico and they’re unaware of the law,” he said. “They’re working Monday through Monday just to get by, and getting a child seat isn’t the top priority they have for using their money.”

California law requires that children age 4 and under, or children who weigh less than 40 pounds, must ride in a child safety seat, Miramontes said. Car seat prices range from about $50 to $80. Fines for violating the law go up to nearly $300, he said.

“That’s money that they can’t typically spare,” Miramontes said. “We’re hoping to help some of the families out by giving the seats away and make the other families aware that they need to make this a priority.”

According to CHP statistics, 60 children died in accidents on the state’s highways in 1992, about half of them Latino.

Adelante will give out the car seats at a 7 p.m. meeting at Holy Cross Chapel at Everett and Magnolia streets in Moorpark. For information about Adelante, call Miramontes at 494-8258.