A cooperative partnership between Arizona and Sonora highlights the importance of a safe ride home for all children and their families. Car seat use in Arizona is about 90%, yet car seat use in Sonora is less than 20%.  A lot of this is because car seats cost more in Mexico than they do in the US- making them less affordable.   As part of an initiative that we launched with Sonora at this summer’s Arizona Mexico Commission, Arizonans will be able to conveniently donate new and gently used child safety seats for distribution to families in Mexico. All donated child safety seats will be inspected to insure they will provide the protection needed.  

We recently established a new website called A Safe Ride Home which promotes car seat safety in Arizona. We’re in the process of creating community collection points for the car seat donations. The collection sites will be posted to the website. People will also be able to find resources for getting low cost seats in Arizona, including the Arizona Governor’s Office of Highway Safety CAPP Program at the new website.  

Having a properly installed car seat is as important as having a car seat.  Next week, we’re sending staff to work with our partners from Mexico to provide best practices for how to implement programs to teach folks how to safely and properly install car seats.  More to come on this initiative this winter.