DaimlerChrysler Plans 1,000 Child-Seat Fitting Stations
DaimlerChrysler will establish a permanent service at about 1,000 dealerships to advise parents about purchasing and installing car seats correctly in their autos, company officials said Wednesday.
The company will spend more than $10 million annually on the service, which will be offered at about a quarter of their dealerships, the officials said.
The move follows a January recommendation by the National Transportation Safety Board that a nationwide network of “fitting stations” for child seats be established to prevent the deaths of children in automobile accidents.
More than 80% of child seats are improperly installed in autos.
Each year, frustrated parents struggle to properly install about 70 models of child car seats in hundreds of types of cars with various seat shapes, meaning there are “potentially 100,000 different ways to confuse the average consumer,” NTSB Chairman Jim Hall has said.
Robert Eaton, DaimlerChrysler co-chairman, is formally launching the initiative today at a news conference that Hall is scheduled to attend. Also involved in the initiative is the child seat manufacturer Fisher-Price and the nonprofit National Safety Council.
Properly used child seats cut the risk of fatal injuries in half, according to government statistics. This decade, more than 60,000 children have died in traffic crashes.
When Hall recommended the fitting stations, he envisioned them across the United States at vehicle inspection sites, motor vehicle administration offices, fire stations, automobile dealerships and safety organization offices.
He said the stations would “reach more people than sporadic child-restraint clinics” and would “provide a stable” source of “informed, qualified people to assist with the installation of child restraints.”
General Motors Corp. also is considering some type of permanent fitting stations in its dealerships, spokesman Greg Martin said.
Since 1996, GM has worked with the nonprofit group National Safe Kids Campaign to host weekend or daylong child safety seat checks at their dealerships, he noted.
