David W. Smith/Daily News Seven-week-old Riley Miller gets his car seat inspected Monday afternoon at Bowling Green Fire Department No. 4 during a free event sponsored by the state Transportation Cabinet's Drive Smart initiative. The event was part of Child Passenger Safety Month.

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Parents received assistance Monday and again today with ensuring their child's safety seat is installed properly.

Erin Goin of the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet's Drive Smart child passenger safety team said that during the 17 child seat safety events around the state, the seats have been improperly installed in a couple of the vehicles, which is not a reflection of cabinet statistics.

“Any error could result in an injury or fatality,” she said. “A statewide study has shown a 95 percent misuse rate.”

One of the major problems parents have are not knowing how to use their seat belt system, she said. Usually good information about the system is in the vehicle's owner manual.

Patrick Moss was one of the parents at Monday's check. He came because it was his first child and he wanted to see if he had installed the seat correctly.

But after having his seat installed and receiving instruction, Moss said, he learned a lot and was surprised how much information there is about properly installing child safety seats.

This event was one of the transportation cabinet education efforts this month.

Monday's check at the Bowling Green Fire Department on Morgantown Road was the 18th this month.

Representatives from the Transportation Cabinet, the Barren River Area Health Department, South Central Kentucky Area Health Education Center, the Franklin Police Department and Kentucky State Police carefully went through vehicles with parents, demonstrating how to install a seat correctly.

“It takes at least 20 minutes to check a car seat, but some of the vehicles have taken three hours,” Goin said.

A lot of parents don't strap their child into the seat tightly enough, Goin said.

“You should only be able to get one finger under the belt at the collarbone,” she said. “Most parents think that's too tight.”

Leather seats also make installing the child seats more difficult, said Franklin Police Officer Kelly Mayfield.

Installers used shelf liner to prevent the child seat from moving on the vehicle's leather seats.

A child seat should not move more than an inch in any direction once it has been secured, according to Transportation Cabinet safety information.

The latch system is the only improvement in new cars compared to older vehicles in installing child seats, said Franklin Police Officer Michael Cornwell.

Kentucky law requires that children be kept in rear-facing safety seats while riding in the car until they reach 1 year of age and are a minimum of 20 pounds. Then they can ride in front-facing safety seats.

Also, children shorter than 4 feet, 9 inches tall and less than 80 pounds must also ride in a booster seat, according to the law.

Because of front airbags, it is recommended that children under 12 ride in the backseat.

There are another eight events this month as part of the cabinet's campaign to emphasize the seats and other safety devices for children, Goin said.

It's critical the cabinet focus on all aspects of child passenger safety, said transportation Secretary Bill Nighbert.

“Our kids are our most precious cargo,” he said.

The cabinet wants to promote good safety habits for the entire family, said transportation Deputy Secretary Crystal Murray Ducker. Parents should note that when adults have good habits, such as buckling up, there is a much better chance their children will adopt the same habits.

Another of the child seat checks was conducted today in Glasgow at the Barren County Maintenance Barn.

- For more information about child safety seats and how they should be installed, go to http://highwaysafety.ky.gov/.