Somewhere between 70 to 80% of car seats are installed incorrectly, according to Chris Hughes, coordinator of Schneck Medical Center’s car seat program.

On Thursday afternoon, Hughes helped man the hospital’s free car seat check booth in the Robertson Mill parking lot during the Kid’s Safety Fest.

“Car seats are so important,” Hughes said. “[Car seats] are what prevent our kids from dying or having serious injuries in vehicle crashes … It’s important for you to have them checked.”

The Walnut Street parking lot (the site of the Farmer’s Market) across the street from the Robertson Mill lot played host to the majority of organizations and vendors, which included the Seymour High School JAG program, Indiana WIC, TJ’s BBQ & Catering, HSI Head Start, Seymour Young Marines and Jackson County United Way, among others.

The Boys & Girls Club of Seymour promoted biking/pedestrian safety and gave away free helmets.

Lara Wheeler, the club’s director of resource development, spoke about precautions the club takes to ensure children’s safety.

Wheeler said all Boys & Girls Club staff are CPR-trained and have to log a certain number of training hours before interacting with kids. Every staff member also is subject to a background check.

“We also do trainings twice a year for our staff,” Wheeler said. “A big thing for our staff that work with teens in suicide awareness … prevention [and] being able to notice the signs.”

Seymour police officers Chadd Rogers and Jason Wynn represented Project LiveSaver, a GPS-monitoring program first implemented in 2016 to help locate people with cognitive disabilities.

“Project LiveSaver is for individuals with cognitive disabilities like autism, Alzheimer’s, traumatic brain injuries, that have a tendency to wander away from the same place,” Rogers said. “It uses RFI frequencies. We put a transmitter on the client and if they do go missing we can use the receiver to track their location.”

The Seymour Fire Department, in addition to a face cutout board photo-op, offered informational pamphlets on fire safety. Firefighter Andrew Murphy said one course of action he always reminds parents and caregivers to take is to double-check their backseats.

“That seems to be the main thing, especially in today’s world,” Murphy said. “People are getting busy and distracted looking at their cellphones … In the summertime, if it’s a 90-degree day, it can be 130 [degrees] inside a vehicle.”

The Seymour Police Department allowed kids the opportunity to interact with and pet Koni, the department’s K-9, and Jackson County EMS offered kids the chance to explore an ambulance.

Shawnee Ault, general coordinator for First Steps, stressed the importance of car seat safety.

“Car seat safety is huge because it is very, very important in keeping our kiddos safe, even if it’s just a short trip down the road,” Ault said.

The Kid’s Safety Fest was hosted by the Seymour Police Department and Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 108 in conjunction with the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute Automotive Safety Program and Schneck Medical Center.