Family Credits Child Seat Check-Up Event
With Saving Children's Lives
July 1, 2002
Excerpted from Nebraska State Patrol report

(North Platte, Nebraska) On Monday, Toni Slattery, of North Platte, Neb., was driving her 1995 Chevy Suburban on a county road when she lost control in the gravel.  The Suburban rolled four times and landed in a ditch.  Also in the vehicle were her four young children; Kari, age 7; Katie, age 5; Jessica, age 3; and 8-month-old Julie.  All five escaped serious injury.

Three months before the crash, Toni attended a free child safety seat check-up event in North Platte to have her child seats inspected.  All four seats were found to have been improperly installed.  In May 2002, Slattery made an appointment with a child passenger safety technician at the Nebraska State Police office in North Platte because she was concerned that one of the child seats was not secured tightly enough.  The technician provided Slattery with a locking clip to tighten the seat. 

Slattery credits those visits and the proper use of child safety seats with saving the lives of her children.  "Learning what I was doing wrong and how to fasten the child seats correctly saved my daughters' lives," Slattery said.