Child Car Seat Checks

The summer travel season is here and more and more of us are going to be on the road. Nationally, with pandemic restrictions relaxing, it's expected that we may break some travel records this summer since the flood gates have been opened.

With that in mind, if you have little one traveling in Car Seats, now is the time to get them checked by a Certified Child Passenger Seat (CPS) Technician. Why is this important? It's been found that over 75% of child car seats are installed incorrectly.

Just the other day, I had checked a car seat and it looked like it installed correctly, but the parent was using both the lower ankers and the seatbelt restraint, thinking it was going to be safer. The more the better, right? Well in the case of child passenger seats, utilizing more than one system to install the seat could cause undue stress on the seat causing it to fail during a crash and that’s the last thing we would want to happen.

So where can you get your car seat checked? We have several options for you.

• Missoula Rural Fire Department (Fire Station #1 - 2521 South Ave W, Missoula, MT 59804) is back in operation and their fitting station is on the 2nd Saturday of every month, Appointment Required please call 406.549.6172

• Missoula Emergency Services, Inc (MESI) can check a seat by Appointment Only. Please Call 406.549.2325

• If these don’t fit your schedule, give me a call (Steve Schmidt - 406.258.3880) here at Drive Safe Missoula, because we have several other CPS Technicians throughout our community who may be able to work around your schedule to get your car seat checked.

Thank you and Drive Safe Missoula