BANGOR, Maine — Changes to Maine's child safety seats in cars were approved by Gov. Janet Mills just over a week ago. In Bangor on Saturday, one group was helping new and expecting parents understand them.
Safe Kids Maine held a child safety seat inspection at Quirk Chevrolet in Bangor. The hope is for parents to understand the law, and best practices for keeping children safe in car seats.
The law requires children to be in a rear-facing safety seat until the age of two. For children older than two they now must be secured in a forward-facing seat with a harness until they weigh 55 pounds. Before the new law, that weight was set at 40 pounds.
"Just reinforcing best practice. So keeping kids rear facing as long as possible, at least until age 2 if not longer," said Staci Fortunato of Safe Kids Maine, who inspects the child safety seats.
She says that the law that is now in place is already what she has been recommending parents do to keep their children safe.
During her inspections, she was making sure that car seats were not too loose in the car, and that harnesses are tight enough. Fortunato says those are most common issues she sees with car seats.
Safe Kids Maine holds child safety seat checks multiple times a month across Maine. Their next event will be on July 3 in Waterville.
You can find out more about Safe Kids Maine here.