Families First teaming up with Mississippi Highway Patrol to provide car seat safety

Any time is a good time for safety, and Families First here in Meridian is teaming up with the Mississippi Highway Patrol to give advice on car seat and seat belt safety. In their annual car seat check-up event, officers with highway patrol allowed locals to stop by Families First and have them check out to see if they are strapped in properly.

If not, officers would then strap them in correctly for them. They also provided an active demonstration of what could happen to drivers and passengers in an accident if they do not wear their seat belts.

“From my experience and from what I’ve seen, what we know, what tests have shown, there’s scientific data that backs up what we say. We’re not making any of this up. It’s not a law that we put on people just to harass them or make them uncomfortable. It’s all about safety,” said Master Sgt. Chriss Turnipseed with the Public Affairs Division of the Mississippi Highway Patrol.

The unofficial number of motor vehicle deaths in Mississippi last year was around 688, and nearly half of those were not due to not wearing seat belts.