Auto Club, CHP and Babies 'R' Us Ask Parents to Trash Old, 'Unsafe' Child Safety Seats
--Automobile Club of Southern California:WHO: The Automobile Club of Southern California, the California Highway Patrol and Babies 'R' Us. WHAT: News conference and demonstration of "unsafe" child safety seats. Many old seats will be destroyed and crushed in a refuse truck. There will be a demonstration of the proper way to secure a child in a safety seat. WHEN: Monday, Feb. 13, 2006, at 10 a.m. WHERE: Auto Club Downtown Los Angeles Headquarters Building at 2601 S. Figueroa (at the corner of Adams Blvd.) WHY: Feb. 13-18 is National Child Passenger Safety Week. The Auto Club and the California Highway Patrol are leaders in the field of child passenger safety. Many parents have children riding in old car seats with the mistaken idea that they are safe. In many cases, the old seats are expired or may have been in crashes. Parents are encouraged to replace these potentially unsafe car seats with new ones. The Auto Club and Babies 'R' Us are providing thousands of discount coupons for the purchase of a new child passenger safety seat. Editor's Note: Many parents use hand-me-down safety seats or purchase safety seats used from garage sales, flea markets or thrift stores. Without knowing a seat's history, you cannot know if it has been in a crash, has been recalled or if it is expired. Children are safest in new safety seats; if not a new seat, then one that is less than five years old. Seats between 5-9 years old may be safe only if its history is known. A child should never be placed in a safety seat that is more than nine years old.