Hawai‘i Police Department
Traffic Services Section
Torey D. Keltner, Program Manager
Phone: (808) 961-2305
Media Release
The Hawai‘i Police Department, in partnership with Kona Target, the Hawai‘i Department of Transportation, and other community organizations, will hold a free child safety seat clinic for families on Saturday, February 10, 2024, from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., in the Kona Target parking lot, 74-5455 Makala Boulevard, Kailua-Kona.
Officers will conduct the safety seat inspections and show parents and care givers how to properly install child safety seats, check for any factory recalls on seats and vehicles, and answer questions. The clinic will feature four stations allowing families to have their child safety seat checked with ease.
“This is a great free service for parents to check their child’s safety seat and get answers to any questions they may have,” said Torey Keltner of HPD’s Traffic Services Section.
“We encourage anyone who has questions about child safety seats to stop by.”
According to 2021 data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the most recent year for available data, an average of three children were killed and 445 were injured every day in the U.S. while riding in cars, SUVs, pickups, and vans. Even more alarming, the number of children killed in traffic crashes in 2021 increased to 1,184, an 8 percent jump over 1,101 keiki traffic fatalities in 2020. The number of children who died while riding unrestrained in vehicles also increased from 38 percent in 2020 to 40 percent in 2021.
“Please do you part and help us keep our keiki safe on the roadways,” said Keltner.
For more information on Saturday’s child safety seat clinic, please contact Sandy Tomiyama, volunteer with Partners for Safe Keiki, at (808) 896-1940.
