In California, motor vehicle injuries is one of the top five causes of death and hospitalization among children under age 16 \u2014 an issue Fresno County is looking to tackle.<\/p>\n
Fresno County is working to educate parents and guardians about the importance of child safety seats while traveling via the Child Passenger Safety Program.<\/p>\n
The California Office of Traffic Safety has awarded the Fresno County Department of Public Health a grant of $187,317 to support their efforts to ensure all children travel safely.<\/p>\n
With over 300,000 miles of roadway and millions of motor vehicles in California, virtually every young person is constantly exposed to traffic-related injury.<\/p>\n
Fresno County is working to educate parents and guardians about the importance of child safety seats while traveling via the Child Passenger Safety Program.<\/p>\n
The program is a \u201cmuch-needed resource\u201d in the aim to reduce injuries and fatalities for children under eight, the county said.<\/p>\n
In 2024, car seat misuse rate was 94%, reduced from 97% in 2022, according to Safe Kids Central California.<\/p>\n
Education and safety efforts have improved the misuse rate, but it remains much higher than the national average of 74-78%.<\/p>\n
Improper installation methods and incorrect use of seatbelts are the leading causes of issues and injury, the county said in a news release.<\/p>\n
County Needs Child Safety Technicians<\/p>\n
Fresno County will distribute free car seats and train guardians on proper installation, bolstering education and safety using grant funds.<\/p>\n
Currently, Fresno County has a shortage of certified Child Passenger Safety Technicians with only five Spanish-speaking and two Hmong-speaking CPSTs.<\/p>\n
Fresno County is looking to change that, offering CPST training and recertification courses with grant funds.<\/p>\n
Additionally, the grant, running from Oct. 2025 to Sept. 2026, will allow Child Passenger Safety to provide more resources and education.<\/p>\n
In the future, the program plans to include child car seat inspection events and education classes and teaming up with local organizations to host community outreach events.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In California, motor vehicle injuries is one of the top five causes of death and hospitalization among children…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":115356,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":{"0":"post-115355","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fresno","8":"tag-fresno","9":"tag-fresno-headlines","10":"tag-fresno-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115355\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}