April showers us with opportunity

 As April 2024 approaches, those of us in the child passenger safety space have a few fantastic options for our continuing education. The first is the Denver Auto Show, April 4-7 at the Colorado Convention Center.

I make an annual pilgrimage to the Denver Auto Show to observe firsthand what vehicle manufacturers are offering for child passenger safety features, check compatibility between cars & car seats and offer advice to parents on making car seat purchases, educate on proper installation techniques, expand my photo library of years of documenting automotive evolution and answering general questions about car seats and children's safety.

As a safety professional for over 37 years with over 130,000 car seats installation assists under my belt, a former automotive repair technician and a traveler who studies transportation safety in the countries I visit, I bring a unique perspective that has included invitations to partner with auto dealers, transportation museums, auto repair shops and many other organizations who participate in the transportation safety space. For several years I was invited to include my "Ask the Car Seat Guy" information booth in exhibitor spaces at the Denver Auto Show, and with the general feeling that concerns like Covid are now in the past, I am planning on returning that booth to the show in 2025.

For me, the Denver Auto Show is a place to get a lot of research done in a one stop shopping kind of experience. It's true that not all auto brands participate, but the Denver Auto Show allows me to visit many brands and explore many models before I go out into the market and visit brands who don't participate. In previous years, before the Covid shut down, I would lead a "tour" through the show for car seat technicians who were looking for expert guidance and continuing education in the vehicle and car seat compatibility space. And that's where we're going next.

Starting on April 7th thru the 9th, with some auxiliary programing starting the 6thn and the 10th, the National Child Passenger Safety conference, Lifesavers 2024, will be in Denver, also at the Colorado Convention Center. A little overlap, something I think is fantastic, and a great way to see car technology before we delve into a few days of car seat technology. I am hopeful my colleagues will take advantage of this rare opportunity for our profession to get a twofer. I'll be taking a day or two at the Denver Auto Show before the Lifesavers Conference for sure.

For me, later in the month is a Just Between Friends sale with one of our larger parenting organizations/clients where I will be holding car seat an education clinic and doing car seat checking for participating parents. These are clinics I offer as often four to eight times a month with many partner organizations. For me, the informal conversation style presentations I do with these groups are far more effective than doing a straight up car seat safety checkup event. Modern parents are looking for a partner in safety, not a checkup event that feels invasive and judgmental.

To address that I operate two programs through our organization, Beer & Baby Seats and Transportation Safety Coach. I learned some years ago that meeting parents where they congregate and, on their level, facilitates a conversation that allows for communication that you cannot do in a hospital or car seat safety check setting. Parents want to be talked with, not to. They are looking for support, not feeling judged. They've found that social media, and the Internet in general is full of incorrect information, criticisms and agenda, making it hard to find the answer they are looking for and feeling supported in their decisions. Our technician class tries to encourage us as technicians that the parent or caregiver is the one who makes the final decision about child passenger safety. We are educators, and at most, we should document when a parent may want to make a different decision that what we may offer as advice.

So, in an effort to not stand on this soap box too long, I'll end here for now. It is easy to get a little carried away as this is a topic of much passion for me and my fellow safety technicians. Every thumbs down we leave on social media, every judgement we post toward a parent, each incorrect video we promote lessons our effectiveness as educators. We succeed as a group when we educate, support and accept that like starfish washing up on the beach, we can have a goal of safety for all, but we can't be the savior of all.

Are you a cop or firefighter?

 I get this question a lot, and I proudly answer No. Now before you think that there is distain in that answer, there are a few things to know. I'll start with the law enforcement side of things. If you want the full detailed story, ask me. For the record, I spent three years exploring law enforcement as a profession and through that I was drawn away for several reasons. I found the culture of law enforcement toxic, and this was starting in 1980 for me. Because I was a very good shot, I was being recruited into SWAT types of activities, and to me, that was toxic times 2, not interested. I enjoyed being on the shooting team and the shooting range, watching and working fellow officers, many of whom could barely qualify with their service weapon. I observed many who presented as "afraid of their weapon". That equals, "likely to lose it in an altercation and either be shot or lead to the endangerment others". Not interested. I had a gunsmith relative and a lot of firearm training prior to looking into law enforcement and part of my early interest was my comfort with and ability with firearms.

I loved the community interaction yet saw domestic disputes that scared me. Radios, Teletronics, video and computers, great fun and ultimately took me another direction. Too much criminal justice, not enough "Protect & Serve". Since my background was very automotive, assisting the radio shop, the vehicle maintenance shop appealed to me. The tech side of me did work integrating very early portable computing into the vehicles movement, producing very early cable TV programming for the community and other law enforcement. I'd had a part-time job in a local computer store and transportable, car mounted, radio frequency computer tech was part of my jam. At the time, no live airbag systems to worry about deploying and launching a computer into an officer's face. Very leading edge and a lot of fun for me.

As for the video part of things, we did a weekly show for cable TV that highlighted home safety, technology, vehicle safety, some firearm safety, and many other topics of interest. Body worn video systems weren't on the radar other than talk of how cool we thought it could be. We did put video recording systems in some vehicles, mostly command and control oriented or SWAT, but nothing like can be done today. It was the programing and video experience that led me to produce a car seat installation video as a community service project in 1987 with my Kiwanis club that brought me to early car seat education activity and set me on this journey.

A side note on the video, Blockbuster Video stores had a community education section where the community could put video tapes for the community to borrow for free on community related, public safety and other topics. This is where the video was made available and it was marked to expecting parents, along with other prenatal topics. In my community, the library hadn't started offering these services, so it was Blockbuster where my video on car seats lived, until they closed up shop. My extra inventory of extra tapes was in a building owned by my parents that was set ablaze by an unhappy homeless person 2 months before I was to travel to retrieve the tapes to dump master content to DVD. I lost all the content, and many early car seats, personal items and essentially a lot of my youth in that fire.

In my next installment I'll cover firefighting, more technology and teaching part of this adventure. I've done a lot of things and never been afraid of a learning opportunity or challenge, and these mini-CV's will introduce you to my various adventures, and varied background. Hange on ...

What is a counterfeit car seat?

Well, seems we're missing something, so I'll be out, looking around since the posts following the April 2011 post aren't here. Actually, they were on another site that is now lost to time. A shovel and some time and we'll get them dug up. Until then, here's what is, or was new ...

During the covid time, this was a hot topic, so as is often the case, something old is new, again. When it comes to fake car seats, there are a few categories, a lot of misunderstanding, a lack of real knowledge and maybe a little stupid. Most of the challenges stem from education, or lack thereof. Why you ask? Because a 3-day class does not an expert make. It's a previous Blog post, and I'll be looking for it. Until then, just as with any profession that involves skill, learning over time and personal motivation, not all safety technicians, in the case car seat technicians (CPST) are created equal. Other than the current 3-day class? It used to be longer ...

I began my involvement in child passenger safety (CPS) back in the summer of 1987. Back then, it wasn't uncommon to meet a family that had a vehicle without seatbelts. My 1951 Hudson Hornet from high school in the late 70's didn't have seatbelts, and it was not only common for older cars, but it was also (and is) legal. I later added seatbelts, and that is another story. Since that time frame, I've helped people add seatbelts to more modern cars in markets/countries where seatbelts weren't and may still not be required safety equipment.

Much of what is being called counterfeit or fake in the US world of car seats is actually safety equipment imported from markets around the world that meet the safety requirements of country of origin or market of sale. Living in a college town, with an international student body, I've seen children's safety equipment from all over the world. The engineer in me says "that's cool" while the safety geek in me says "that's not going to work here".

If I have a car seat missing part of a harness, is it really missing, or is it not required "there"? It is usually the latter. But it gives the unexperienced the opportunity to say to say the car seat's fake, counterfeit or bad. I say that's perspective. Just because a part is required in one market, and not in another only reflects the meeting of engineering or performance requirements in xyz place. Just because a car seat designed for the US market has a harness clip and a 5-point design doesn't make it better than one without those features if another part of the world doesn't require them. America, we aren't the center of the universe, just the center of our universe.

Now I'm not saying there aren't fake or counterfeit car seats out there, I used to have a bunch of them. At one point in time, I had a collection of over 3000 car seats. Storage was affordable, and times have changed. Anyone say legalized weed? That's another story. But in that collection, I had car seats that looked like products from major manufacturers, but with no name, a misspelled name, a made-up name, you name it. I also had car seats from Europe, AU/NZ, China, all over the world and they were legal car seats, in their market of sale, but not legal for use in the US (vacation exemption notwithstanding, another story for another time.) They weren't fake, or counterfeit, or whatever.

So, with all this said, why is it coming up again? Slow news day? New year? Making something out of something that's really nothing, if you've got the experience. Should I show you a link I received a few times today? I'm thinking about, but I'm embarrassed for the reporter, the hospital mentioned and the making a mountain out of a molehill. My opinions, but relevant regardless. For now, I'll just say FOX31 News in Denver. I may step in it deeper tomorrow, but I have mercy for the ill-informed. For now.