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Car Seats

The Child Passenger Safety section of Bellevue Police is a group of dedicated officers who are certified to inspect and install child passenger seats. Nebraska’s Safe Kids Buckle Up Program was established in 1999. Captain Herb Evers of Bellevue Police was in the first National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) child passenger training course held in Nebraska. In this first class 28 child passenger safety technicians were certified across the state of Nebraska. Since the first class, 26 other classes have been held and Nebraska now holds over 350 certified child passenger technicians. After his initial class, Evers brought the child passenger safety program back to Bellevue Police and implemented our own child passenger program.

The Bellevue Police Department is an active member of the Sarpy County/Cass County, a local chapter of the Safe Kids Worldwide whose mission is to prevent unintentional injuries to children ages 14 and under. Bellevue Police has a permanent fitting station for car seat inspection and installation located at Beardmore Chevrolet. Bellevue Police Officers certified in child passenger safe also assist Safe Kids Sarpy/Cass County with child seat check up events across the two county area.

Child Passenger Safety is important because motor vehicle crashes are the #1 unintentional killer of children ages 5 to 14, this is true for not only Nebraska kids, but kids nation wide. According to NHTSA, motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for children 3 to 14 years old. According to the Nebraska Department of Roads from 1999 to 2004, there were 92 deaths and over 14,000 injuries for the age group of 0 to 14 years old. Of those deaths, 72 were occupants and 20 were pedestrians. NHTSA also reports nationally in 2004 50% of fatally injured children under 15 years old are unrestrained.