Buckle Up Kids
What We Do
Safe Kids Buckle Up strives to offer every driver who transports children these opportunities:
- Learn how to properly restrain children in age- and weight-appropriate car seats or booster seats
- Learn why all passengers over age 8 should serve as good role models by using safety belts on every ride
- Learn why children under age 13 should be seated in the back seat
- Find their local Safe Kids coalition to learn more about other accidental child injury risks
Safe Kids Buckle Up objectives are met by organizing, funding and equipping state and local Safe Kids coalitions to serve the public in cooperation with Chevrolet and GM partners. Safe Kids Buckle Up provides media and community outreach, education and training, public policy efforts and research to communities. Chevrolet and GM dealerships serve as community meeting places where community members can obtain safety information and attend car seat safety checkups and special safety events. Safe Kids Buckle Up encourages dealers to learn as much as they can about child passenger safety, so they can be recognized as local safety resources.
How We Get Things Done
The mission of Safe Kids Buckle Up is to ensure that children are fully protected in vehicles. Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for U.S. children between the ages of 1 and 14. Safe Kids Buckle Up community education occurs in a variety of settings.
Checkup Events
Nationally certified child passenger safety technicians staff community events designed to help drivers understand children’s vehicle safety needs, based on their ages, weights and developmental stages. Motorists generally make appointments to attend scheduled, publicized checkup events in convenient community locations. A driver brings his or her child or children, the car seat or seats they currently use, the vehicle owner’s manual and the car seat instructions. Nationally certified child passenger safety technicians follow a standardized checklist to ensure that all aspects of safety aspects relative to the child, the car seat and the vehicle seating location are explored. The motto for every event is, Children Leave Safer Than When They Arrived!
Checkup event inspection and education are free to the public. However, replacement car seats are not free and not always available. If a replacement car seat is needed and available, a contribution may be requested, based on the seat’s actual cost and defrayed by a grant from Safe Kids Buckle Up. Contributions are used to purchase additional car seats, so the program can continue for other families.
Parents are encouraged to bring a new car seat or booster seat to the event if they know their child has outgrown the current car seat or if the car seat they currently use is damaged, has been in a crash or was obtained secondhand with no history. The certified technicians working at the event will help the parent learn to adjust the harness and properly place the car seat or booster seat in the vehicle.
Partnership for Children Checkups
Safe Kids Buckle Up funds car seat inspections in fixed locations throughout the United States. To schedule a car-seat inspection please call: 910-592-9399