News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Tennessee Tech’s iCube provided technology to improve child safety.
Over 60 percent of child safety seats are installed incorrectly. The National Safety Council has trained passenger seat technicians to help parents install those seats correctly.
But the council ran into an issue with seat technicians using different reporting forms. The council could not determine which seats had repeat installation problems.
That is where Tennessee Tech’s iCube came in. Director Amanda Powell said they developed a single form used by all seat technicians.
“So they’re all answering the same questions, all getting uploaded online,” Powell said. “And then we’re using that information to help kind of inform local agencies about different seats that are getting installed kind of incorrectly more often.”
Powell said the National Digital Car Seat Check Form receives input from all seat technicians. She said sharing this uniform data alerts technicians to spend more time explaining installations for seats that tend to be installed incorrectly.
Powell said common installation issues include incline angle and the seat belt going across the lap in the wrong space.
“Incorrectly installed car seats are a killer for kids,” Powell said. “It’s a top issue in child safety, being incorrectly seated.”
Powell said it is free to get your car seat checked.
For more information on fitting stations, go to https://tntrafficsafety.org/cps-fitting-stations.
