Fun days to check out child car seat safety

EIGHT out of 10 child seats are fitted incorrectly posing a serious risk to youngsters, figures show.

Carmarthenshire County Council’s Road Safety Unit is holding a series of free Child Safety Fun Days across the county during the Easter holidays.

The main aim is to check as many child car seats as possible in Llanelli, Ammanford and Carmarthen and address the faults.

It is hoped the events will also help to raise awareness of the risks to babies and children if seats are not fitted properly.

County road safety manager Keith Griffiths said: “It is quite frightening how many families quite innocently believe their precious bundles are safe when buckled into their child seats but our checks in recent years have shown up to eight out of 10 car seats checked have been fitted incorrectly.

“Whilst the Road Safety Unit operation has a serious message we make the checks as fun an occasion as possible. We have invited other agencies and businesses along including the Library Service, Help for Heroes, The Fire Service, Womens Aid and Smallprint Jewellery to name just a few.”

There will be demonstrations throughout the day by therapists from Easy Therapies and Everybody’s Better and also non-alcoholic ‘mocktail’ taster sessions.

As well as learning about road safety, children will have the chance to meet Gari Gosafe, Sali Mali and Postman Pat and there will be magic and fun with Mr Tricks the clown. Other attractions include a free bouncy castle.

The fun days are being held between 10am and 4pm at Carmarthen Leisure Centre on Monday, April 2; Llanelli Leisure Centre on Tuesday, April 3 and Amman Valley Leisure Centre on Wednesday, April 4. Free family swimming will also be available at all the leisure centres on completion of a car seat check (time restrictions may apply).

A ‘don’t bin it, bring it’ event is also being held by the council’s waste section, in partnership with DHL Enviro Solutions, at the Carmarthen and Llanelli fun days. People attending the events are being asked to bring along any unwanted small items such as kettles, toasters, hairdryers and power tools so that they can be recycled.

So if you have any old electrical items hanging around the home that you no longer want, whether they are working or not, please bring them along!

For further information on the events please call Carmarthenshire Direct on 01267 234567.