Stanislaus County’s Health Services Agency has received a second year of funding to support the car seat safety effort Keep Baby Safe Program.

The Keep Baby Safe Program educates parents, caregivers, childcare providers, and professionals on the importance of child safety in a car including correctly using car seats, booster seats, and seat belts. The program offers monthly Spanish and English classes at the main HSA campus and throughout Stanislaus County.

The funding comes from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. It extends the program through Sept. 30.

The OTS funding has helped expand the KBS Car Seat Safety Program at ten local Family

Resource Centers: North Modesto/Salida FRC, The Bridge FRC, Oakdale FRC, Sierra Vista Drop-In Center, Parent Resource Center (Modesto and Airport), Patterson FRC, Newman FRC, Ceres Partnership for Healthy Children, Hughson FRC and Turlock FRC.

During the first year of funding a total of 40 bilingual community Keep Baby Safe classes were held with a total reach of 327 individuals receiving car seat safety education, according to HAS. Additionally, four community car seat inspection events were held, during which a total of 158 car seats were inspected and 72 car seats were confiscated due to the car seats had been involved in a crash, were expired, had labels missing and/or were the incorrect car seat for the child due to the child’s age and/or height. The confiscated car seats were replaced with a new car seat.

“This year we will continue to stress the importance of properly securing and installing the child safety seats,” HAS spokesperson Julie Falkenstein said in a news release. “The proper use of child car seats is one of the simplest and most effective methods available for protecting the lives of young children in the event of a crash.”