Buckling Up for Child Safety
Instead of the usual angst drivers might feel when pulled over for a traffic violation, gratitude was the common sentiment Tuesday morning when LAPD’s West Bureau Traffic Division flagged down about 15 cars for improper child safety belt use.
At a traffic checkpoint at Venice Boulevard near La Brea Avenue, officers provided instruction on the use of child car seats instead of writing citations.
For the record:
12:00 a.m. Dec. 1, 1999 For the Record
Los Angeles Times Wednesday December 1, 1999 Home Edition Metro Part B Page 3 Metro Desk 1 inches; 31 words Type of Material: Correction
Child safety seats--In Nov. 24 editions of The Times, a child was misidentified in a photo caption accompanying a story on a Los Angeles Police Department child safety seat checkpoint. The child shown was Rhonda O’Neal, 1.
The effort was part of the biannual, weeklong America Buckles Up Children Mobilization Week.
Officers pulled over Rochelle Beasley and her 2-month-old son, Kaleb, on their way home from the drug store. The infant’s car seat had not been secured to the passenger seat with a safety belt.
“If somebody had hit her [car], the baby seat and the child would have been flying independently,” said Officer Patrick M. Beighley.
He spent 45 minutes putting together the baby seat Beasley had improperly assembled and reinstalled it in the rear of her hatchback while she looked on.
“I’m really glad he pulled me over,” Beasley said. “He could’ve just given me a ticket and not shown me what to do.”
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