Today begins National Child Passenger Safety Week
This information was provided by firefighter/paramedic Chuck Hammon, who is coordinator of the Child Passenger Safety Program for the City of Batavia Fire Department.
Today is the beginning of National Child Passenger Safety Week. This education and awareness program is designed to protect local youth by increasing the safety of children riding around in our community.
The City of Batavia Fire Department began participating in the program this summer after being approached by the city police department, which has been involved with Child Passenger Safety for a few years.
Fire Chief Jim Maxwell thought it was a great idea and is familiar with the program since it is provided to residents by many fire departments in Monroe County, where he used to work.
Locally, the Genesee County Sheriff’s Department and State Troopers also have programs but do not have the availability to provide daily inspection/instruction.
Three Firefighters (Mark Sacheli, Frank D’Angelo and Chuck Hammon) attended a National Child Passenger Safety Technician course offered in Geneseo. Upon completion of this course we restructured the program around the availability of firefighters/technicians and the two certified police officers: Dan Coffey and Thad Mart.
Detective Rich Schauf currently oversees the grant portion of the program and I have taken the position of program coordinator for the operational oversight. We hope to send four to eight more firefighters to the training course next spring to increase the size of the program.
So far this year, we have held two events. The first was a “soft” opening at National Night Out at Birchwood Village and the second event was a part of "Summer in the City."
From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on October 1st, we will be holding our third car seat inspection event at the firehouse during the annual Open House.
The majority of our inspections/educational sessions are done by appointment at the firehouse. Since the fire department took the lead on the program, we have completed 31 inspections. We have issued/replaced 10 car seats, free of charge, to those parents.
Not every inspection results in a new car seat. This program is designed around educating parents and if the car seat supplied is recalled or defective, it is then replaced. We have a supply of car seats available at the firehouse but they are issued depending on supply and demand.
This program is funded by the New York State Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee. An annual grant is awarded to each agency participating in this program, which includes supplies and car seats. The overall cost of the program is free as the inspections/educational sessions are done by the on-duty technicians.
The city fire department is located at 18 Evans St. Program coordinator Hammon's office phone number is 345-6375.
