BURRILLVILLE – It’s Memorial Day weekend and Buckleupallofus wants to remind families to always buckle up for safety while traveling in vehicles over the holiday.
With a beautiful weather forecast for this weekend, many families will be traveling to barbecues, gatherings, beaches, parks, festivals and parades, having fun and enjoying themselves across Rhode Island. Children 12-years-old and younger should be properly restrained in backseats. Booster seats and seatbelts help save lives. Infants and toddlers should be properly restrained in rear-facing car seats. Car seats should always be secured in backseats.
There should also be locations across the state hosting car seat check ups for proper installations due to this year’s Buckle Up! America weeks and Click-It-Or-Ticket campaign ending on Saturday, June, 2. Check online to see who will be hosting the events. Area police departments can also assist you in making sure that your car seats are safe and properly installed. It’s easy enough to schedule an appointment with any participating police department statewide – not only during this national focus week but anytime during the year as well. You can also check the Rhode Island Safe Kids Coalition and Hasbro Children’s Hospital websites to see if they are hosting any car seat check ups during the upcoming week. There are a variety of helpful websites online that can help you make sure that your child or children are properly restrained in car seats and booster seats in vehicle backseats.
Watch for upcoming Buckleupallofus car shows, cruise nights and community events throughout the summer and fall seasons. Kids and families receive free Bucky child passenger safety coloring posters, stickers, full color posters and fridge magnets to take home with them at all of these venues every year.
The safest place for a child to be seated is buckled up in the backseat. Have a fun and safe summer season. Always remember to Buckleupallofus for safety’s sake!
Jim Weicherding is a Burrillville resident, and the founder and creator of an award-winning traffic safety effort Seasons of Safety. Weicherding contributes kids’ coloring cartoons, which can be printed and used to help parents discuss safety issues with their children. He has a long list of police officers and firefighters in his family and has worked with law enforcement and firefighters in a creative public safety capacity for more than two decades.
