Child Passenger Safety

A car seat inspection is a free and convenient way to have your child's car seat inspected by a Nationally Certified Technician. Unlike Fitting Stations, car seat inspections are mobile, one-time events at unique locations and appointments are not required. All car seat inspections are "first come, first served". All Vermont car seat inspections stations participate in the Vermont Car Seat Program.

If you are interested in hosting an event in your community, contact Sid Bradley, Child Passenger Safety Program Coordinator. 

Hosting and Marketing an Event

• Find more information about Hosting a Child Passenger Safety Event. 
• More information about marketing your event can be found in the Marketing Toolkit. 

Check out all the upcoming Car Seat Inspection events.

Over the past 25 years, more than 970 children in the United States have died of heat stroke because they were left or became trapped in a hot car, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. It’s important to understand these tragedies can happen to anyone — but are always preventable. 

Tips for Everyone

If you see a child alone in a locked car, act immediately and call 911. If a child is in distress due to heat, remove them from the vehicle as quickly as possible and cool them rapidly. Stay with the child until help arrives.

Vermont law (12 V.S.A. § 5784 ) protects someone who forcibly enters a vehicle to rescue a child or animal. Fast action could save a life. 

Tips for Parents & Caregivers 

• Teach children not to play in or around cars.
   
• Never leave a child unattended in or around a car. Make a habit of looking in the front and back seat of the car before locking the door and walking away.
   
• Never assume it can't happen to you or your child. A change in routine or busy schedule can cause a caregiver to forget that a child is still in the car.
   
• If you cannot find a child, check any water sources first, then check vehicles, including trunks.
   

See Take Action to Prevent Heat Stroke in Children 

Learn more from this 2024 awareness campaign focused on increasing awareness of the dangers of car-related health-related injuries and possible death.  The campaign was developed by Vermont's Agency of Transportation Drive Well VT.

A heat stroke prevention campaign, Once You Park, Stop, Look, Lock, from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, aims to educate parents and caregivers to learn about the deadly consequences of leaving children in cars.

More Resources  

• Prevent Child Deaths in Hot Cars (American Academy of Pediatrics)
• Heat and Infants and Children | Extreme Heat (CDC)
• Heat and Older Adults (Aged 65+) | Extreme Heat (CDC)
• Extreme Heat (Ready.gov) 
• Hot Weather

Seat belts

• The National Highway Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimated that of the 23,824 passenger vehicle occupants killed in 2020, 51% were not wearing seat belts — a 4% increase from 2019. Seat belts saved an estimated 14,955 lives and could have saved an additional 2,549 people if they had been wearing seat belts, in 2017 alone. In 2017 in Vermont, an estimated 28 lives were saved due to seat belt use for those five and older. 
• In Vermont, seat belt use rate was stable at approximately 85 percent between 2009 and 2015 before dropping to 80 percent in 2016. In that during the same period, the U.S. national rate increased progressively. Since 2018, Vermont’s rate has been substantially higher, nearing the 90 percent use rate goal prescribed by NHTSA. Over the last three years Vermont’s rate has been slightly below the rising national rate but has been slowly closing the gap, reaching 90.4 percent in 2022, the highest rate ever in the State (Vermont Seat Belt Use Survey).

Find more Vermont Occupant Protection data and reports from the Agency of Transportation.