LYNNWOOD – An 18-month-old boy was on the ground, and paramedics were trying to resuscitate him. John Cummings, a collision specialist with the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office, was one of the first officers on the scene.
The boy appeared to be asleep. He wasn’t.
Cummings later learned that the boy died when his car seat failed to protect him in an accident on U.S. 2.
| Read the manuals for your vehicle and car seat.
* Take your time, look things over and see how they work. * If in doubt, ask law enforcement or fire officials for help. |
“He didn’t have cuts or bruises or any blood on him,” Cummings said. “Then I looked at the car seat. The force that was in this crash had destroyed the car seat.”
That was nine years ago. Since then, Cummings has been on a crusade to get kids buckled up correctly and parents trained to protect their children.
Seeing a small boy die years before car-seat issues grabbed headlines and became a major concern for safety officials got him motivated.
“At that point, it really set the fire,” he said. “I realized I needed to do something more.” Michael V. Martina / The Herald
At a car seat inspection clinic Wednesday at a Babies R Us near Alderwood mall, Cummings talked about car seats much like a sports announcer talks about baseball.
“You want the harness to face the opposite direction we face,” Cummings told Jason and Leah Lunder, who had come to get their car seat inspected for 11-month-old Ella Lunder.
“You want the harness to be like hands holding her down. You don’t want her to squeeze through like a banana.”
Cummings gave definitions for terms such as “snug fit,” raked legislators and automakers for not knowing much about car seat safety, and spun the Lunder’s car seat around, looking for information on the stickers on the seat frame.
Cummings, wearing a shirt that said “Car Seat Tech” on the back, earned kudos from the Lunders.
Jason Lunder peppered Cummings with questions. How long should the seat face to the rear before being reversed? Where on the back seat should the car seat be installed? Has car seat technology changed over the years?
Cummings answered them like an index book: Keep the seat facing to the rear as long as possible, since that’s the safest position for your child in an accident. Install the car seat in the middle of the back seat so it’s as far away from the impact of a collision as possible.
And, yes, car seat technology is changing – rapidly.
The Lunders were amazed at how much they didn’t know about installing and fitting a car seat.
“Oh my gosh,” Leah Lunder kept saying as Cummings revealed each new tip for installing her child’s car seat.
“It’s unbelievable how much we took for granted and didn’t know,” Jason Lunder said. “Now we know it’s right vs. ‘Oh, it’s probably fine.’”
Another couple informed, another kid secured.
Cummings was one of the first national experts to tour the county offering seminars on how to correctly install car seats.
When he saw the 18-month-old boy die on U.S. 2 almost a decade ago, safety officials and collision detectives didn’t think much about car seats as the culprit in collision deaths.
Now detectives examine car seats carefully at accidents to see if they are installed or used incorrectly. He also works with other car seat specialists in the state to inform the public about car seat safety.
Still, eight out of 10 car seats are installed wrong, he said.
“It’s getting better, but there’s still a long way to go,” Cummings said.
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