Officer Carl Stowe advises Jessica Diaz, who had come in with her daughter, 10-month-old Isabelle, to get an inspection of the infant seat. Photo by Shirley Ruhe.
Cars are lining up in the parking lot at Police Headquarters on Saturday, Jan. 25. Jessica Diaz and 10-month old Isabelle are standing beside their white Audi while Alexandria Officer Carl Stowe inspects the installation of her infant car seat at a car seat inspection event held by the Alexandria Police Department.
“I see you have elected to use the latch system. “I’m going to teach you some tricks.” He continues, “These are tested, but the seat belt and latch are never tested together.” Stowe tells Diaz that he finds the latch easier to make tighter, but ultimately it is her decision.” Diaz says, “I feel like I could get Jessica out faster in an emergency using the latch system.”
Stowe continues, “Again, location of the seat is important. The safest place in the back seat is to put the seat in the middle.”
“I didn’t know that. I’ll do that,” Diaz says.
“Have you registered the seat with the manufacturer yet? Important to do.”
Officer Abby Fillinger leans across the back seat from the driver’s side. “I am looking for the model number so I can look for any recalls associated with the seat.” Lt. Sarah Cooper, a volunteer from Prince William Fire and Rescue, does an on-the-spot check. “No recalls yet.”
Fillinger fills out a detailed form on her clipboard. “Jessica’s height?”
“24 inches.”
“Weight?”
“About 20 pounds. As you can see, she likes to eat.”
Cooper says they have inspected about 20 cars in the last two hours since the car inspections began at 8 a.m. The event will go until noon. “Most of them have been installed correctly, except the one we just did ahead of this one. But we refine things a little to enable them to strap in more tightly.”
In the meantime Fillinger is trying to work with Diaz’s strap. “Each latch has an adjustment to pull it thin. See this is wrapped around.”
“Oh that is what I was doing wrong.”
Alexandria Officer Alex Trapero says 24 people had signed up on the website for today’s event and they have had 18 so far with some drop ins. He says, “this is our first child seat event although we have been doing child seat installation upon request of citizens.” He adds, “we’re hoping to start having these events once a month.”