BURRILLVILLE – It’s the last Sunday in September and National Child Passenger Safety Month is at an end. The child passenger safety messages are still very important, regardless of a federal or state focus week or month coming to a close.
What I do not see in relationship to child passenger safety is air bag safety. Air bag safety is also a very important message to send out to kids and families. Andy & Amy Airbag were created to address the importance of children twelve-years-old and younger sitting safely restrained in vehicle backseats. These cartoon characters help with the efforts of the very popular child passenger safety and vehicle safety cartoon character; Buckleupallofus. While Buckleupallofus reminds kids and families about backseat safety and vehicle safety, Andy & Amy Airbag remind kids and families about front seat safety. Children under the age of 12 should not ride in front seats. It’s not safe. An airbag deployment can severely injure young children, toddlers and infants. Never install a car seat on any passenger seat. It’s unsafe and dangerous for younger kids. The safest place for children to be properly restrained in rear-facing car seats, booster seats and buckled up in backseats.
A series of Andy & Amy Airbag coloring cartoons and articles will be featured sporadically over the coming months, especially with winter and hazardous road conditions across the state and region ahead. Please visit often and please share these important airbag safety coloring cartoons with pediatricians, pediatric nurses, teachers, librarians, daycare staff, community centers, police officers and first responders. It could help save a child’s life.
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.
