Re: If you could ask Transport Canada ANYTHING...
Hi Again,
Just wondering if anyone has comments/agrees with my previously posted idea of increasing public awareness of proper car seat use/expiry dates.
If a person looks at Craigslist, they will find many expired seats listed. I've flagged them and/or emailed the seller with info and directed them to Transport Canada 2007 guidelines. Many are appreciative, some are just rude.
I'd be interested in other people's opinions.
-K.
This is a 2 part problem, and I'm not sure how to fix it beyond what has already been done because ultimately it is up to the provinces to provide the public advertising and awareness campaigns...
Part 1, is that for many years TC recommendations was that a seat should be discarded after 10yrs. This was based more on observation that seats weren't able to be kept in good repair for that long, and that manufacturers didn't support replacement parts for those seats, combined with standards changing. There was also some concern back in the early 90's (IIRC, it's a bulletin on the TC website,) that putting strict expiry dates on seats may result in parents not using a seat rather than using a slightly expired one. Remember that we're talking about discussion that is over a decade old already and that the climate and knowledge regarding carseat safety was developing further still... At the time of that statement, manufacturers also weren't putting set expiry dates on their seats, so that 10yr recommendation was being provided to make sure that old seats were taken out of circulation instead of being used for 15 or 20 yrs.
So with that history, the OLD recommendation of 10yr expiry that was on TC's website makes sense. That info was current for so long, that it is what most people are aware of.
Part 2, is that many people don't follow and aren't aware of consumer information notices or advisories when issued by TC. So while TC issued the official statement about expiry dates and telling parents when to stop using seats, many people still only know about the old recommendation. This part of the problem is the issue - how do we disseminate to the public that the expiry date of a seat has been changed?
TC has really done all they can by issuing a notice regarding expiry dates - those notices are official communication designed to update parents and techs on important matters regarding child safety... So really, I think it comes down to a local level and people taking the time to educate themselves. I've sometimes emailed people selling really old seats - I just nicely ask DOM and then link to TC's notice regarding expiry dates. Most people check the seat's DOM and the link and then pull the listing.
As for proper use, this is a public awareness issue as well, and something that ultimately needs to be addressed at the local level, with direction on a provincial level. (Local for hands on help, provincial for advertising and official information regarding provincial laws.)
And that comes back to the question of how do we develop an effective network of technicians who are easy for parents to locate. And what type of support needs to be put in place to keep local programs active - as well as what should local programs look like. Part of the downfall of the program here was budget related, and part of it was related to parents becoming dependent on seat checks and not learning to install their own seats. Budget limited time having parents reproduce installs and created an "in & out" type of environment. And that "in and out" seat check environment created parents dependent on someone else to check their seats... that type of problem needs to be addressed in order to have future seat check programs be both sustainable and empowering to parents.
(since I think this thread "if you could ask TC anything, what would it be" is intended mostly as a question thread, I'm going to split your 2nd post into a separate thread to allow for more discussion there.) :thumbsup:
