Current News in Injury Prevention
Promoting Booster Seats in Colorado
Injury and Suicide Prevention Program Colorado Department of Health and Environment and the El Paso (Colorado) County Health Department
Posted on: December 2005
The Injury and Suicide Prevention Program of the Colorado Department of Health and Environment and the El Paso (Colorado) County Health Department are using a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) grant to evaluate a strategy to promote child passenger booster seats. The project targets child care center owners – many of whom opposed a proposed state law that would require children 4 and 5 years of age weighing under 40 pounds and less than 55 inches tall to use booster seats when riding in motor vehicles. The child care centers’ owners were concerned about the expense of buying booster seats and retro-fitting vans with booster-compatible restraint systems. The legislation passed and took effect in August, 2004.
The project is working with 40 centers – 21 intervention sites and 19 control sites. With the help of volunteers from the Colorado Springs chapters of Safe Kids and DRIVE SMART, the project surveyed center directors, staff, and parents about their knowledge of the new law and undertook an observational study to determine how many children leaving the centers were properly restrained.
The project gave more than 900 booster seats to child care centers and to the parents of children aged 4-8 enrolled in the these programs.
The project is also examining child care center transportation policies and promoting transportation policies based on Safe Kids Worldwide recommendations. The grant is also funding a rural seat belt enforcement project in Prowers County and Delta Counties.
For more information on either the booster seat or seat belt enforcement projects, contact Barbara Bailey, Childhood Injury Prevention Coordinator at barbara.bailey@state.co.us or 303–692–2589.
C-DOT Grant
Teen Seatbelt Challenge
Resource Request Form
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