WORLAND – Law enforcement officers, public health nurses and Injury Prevention Resources members from Fremont, Hot Springs and Washakie counties united together Saturday in Shopko's parking lot to provide safety checks on children's car seats and booster seats.

Car seats and booster seats were checked to make sure that they were installed properly, weren't expired or recalled and hadn't been in a crash. Cars seats and booster seats that were found to be expired, recalled or previously in a crash were replaced free of charge.

The car seat safety check lasted four hours and in that time 22 car seats and booster seats were inspected. "For a four-hour safety check, that's a super good result," Injury Prevention Resources Safety Education Coordinator Tom Cunningham stated.

"I think from my perspective, that it was a productive day, we helped make a lot of our youngsters in the community safer," Wyoming Highway Patrol Lieutenant Karl Germain added.

Drivers who were pulled over for violations during that four-hour time period were offered to have their car seats checked if they had car seats. "We had a high volume of legal traffic stops Saturday. We were out there doing nothing more than what we do on a normal day-to-day basis, with the exception for the child safety restraint check point. If we pulled someone over and we happened to notice that they had a car seat in the car we offered that we have a car seat check point where they can get the car seat checked out," Germain said. "It's completely voluntary, the driver makes the conscious decision to get the seats checked," he added.

Drivers who were found to have child restraint violations were offered a chance to go to the car seat safety check point in lieu of a citation. "What's neat about that is in the case that we find a car seat violation we have the ability right there of giving a citation for it or if you don't want to get a citation for that particular violation would you like to come to the check point and we will make sure that your child's car seat is properly installed and if need be give you a free car seat," Germain said. "I did have one mother who was like, 'are you kidding me, I'm only going a few blocks.' I said, 'you can get in a crash in a few blocks as easily as you could anywhere else. The law is the law. We all have to abide by it. As an officer I have to look at the safety of all passengers in the vehicle.' She went to the check point and didn't get the citation," he added.

The car seat check point is a way for law enforcement to make a difference. "I like these child restraint check points because it gives us a time to interact with our community in a different way and it doesn't always have to be about issuing a citation. We have the chance to take corrective action right there and make a real difference knowing that the child is going to be in a properly installed child restraint and we can leave knowing that our job has been done," Germain said. "We can find that the cars seats have expired or been in a crash and we can take real action and swap them out and put the child in a new seat that will be safe when they leave the check point," he added.

The Wyoming Highway Patrol pulled over 37 vehicles during the four hours that car seat safety check was operating. "We handed out four seat belt violation citations, one speeding citation, three miscellaneous citations and 39 warnings," Germain stated.

A driver can be legally pulled over by law enforcement if an officer sees a child not restrained. "It is a primary offense. Non-use or misuse are reasonable suspicion for stopping a vehicle to investigate a suspected violation," Germain said.

The penalty for a child safety seat violation is maximum $50 fine for the first offense according to the Wyoming Statute. The fine shall be waived by the court upon receipt of proof or purchase, lease or other acquisition of an approved restrained after the offense occurred. There is a maximum $100 fine for second and subsequent offenses.

The car seat safety check point is one of the programs aimed at making the highways safer for people in Wyoming. "In general, we have had nine fatalities on Wyoming highways in the last two weeks," Cunningham said.