Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital Trauma Services and the California Highway Patrol will offer free, drive-up child car seat safety checks, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Dec. 7 at Franklin Neighborhood Center, 1136 E. Montecito St. Registration is not necessary.
No citations will be issued, and there will be no driver license or registration checks. All parents are encouraged to have their child seats inspected by our safety experts, as up to 80 percent of car seats are not properly installed.
California state laws require children less than two years old be rear facing unless they weigh 40 pounds or more or are at least 40 inches tall. Also, children under eight years old must be buckled into a car seat or a booster in the back seat. Only children who are at least eight years old and 57 inches tall or taller can ride in the back seat without a booster.
For more information, please call Molly Hawkins at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital Trauma Services, 805.569.7478.
The not-for-profit Cottage Health is the leader in providing advanced medical care to the Central Coast region. Specialties include the Cottage Children’s Medical Center, Level 1 Trauma Center, Neuroscience Institute, Heart & Vascular Center, Center for Orthopedics, and Rehabilitation Hospital. The Cottage Health medical staff is comprised of more than 700 physicians, many with subspecialties typically found only at university medical centers. Last year, the Cottage Health hospitals in Goleta, Santa Barbara and Santa Ynez Valley provided inpatient care for 20,000 people, treated 79,000 patients through their 24-hour emergency departments and helped deliver 2,100 newborns.