Car seat safety checks on Friday, March 21 in shopping center near Manassas Airport

On Friday, March 21, the Prince William County Department of Fire & Rescue invites parents and guardians who transport children in car seats to bring the seats in for a Spring into Safety car seat check, from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Super Target 9900 Sowder Village Square, Manassas.

In 2013 the specially trained DFR staff that checked more than 1250 of the 1400+ car seats at events and public safety stations across the region discovered safety issues, according to a news release.

Assistant Chief Lance McClintock was quoted in the news release as saying, “Sadly, of the numbers of seats we checked, most of them were incorrectly installed. Last year we found over 90 percent of the car seats checked by our members were incorrectly installed or used.”

Prince William County’s Department of Fire & Rescue is one of the largest providers of this free service in the Commonwealth and tomorrow’s (March 21) Spring Car Seat Check will be the start of an aggressive campaign to provide this service monthly in Prince William County.

In addition to our ongoing efforts to check car seats at all Prince William County fire stations, the Department of Fire & Rescue will join with community partners and businesses to provide educational car seat and checkup events at least once a month throughout 2014.

These free events will be located across the county; a schedule of future events will be announced soon.

If you miss the Friday, March 21 seat check event in Manassas and don’t want to wait for the next scheduled event, visit any fire house in Prince William County.