Virginia Beach, Va. (January 30, 2017) – AAA Tidewater is once again partnering with Drive Safe Hampton Roads, Wal-Mart and other community organizations to raise awareness of the potential dangers of using Old, or damaged safety seats for children. For the month of February, these “old, used, borrowed and/or abused” child safety seats will be collected and put out of circulation. Program partners include: Drive Safe Hampton Roads, Wal-Mart, AAA Tidewater Virginia, Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters, DMV: Virginia Highway Safety Office, WVEC Channel 13’s "Project Green", Waste Management of Virginia, Inc., and Hoffman Beverage.
This 28th annual Round-Up also serves to educate parents and caregivers about possible dangers of using car seats that are over six years old, have been purchased from a thrift store or yard sale, have parts missing, or be recalled. “Our focus is to help parents and caregivers understand the dangers of a potentially unsafe child car seat and assist them in getting these seats out of circulation,” said Georjeane Blumling, Vice President of Public Affairs for AAA Tidewater, "we do not recommend that used seats be resold or given to parents or caregivers unless it can be determined that the seat is safe to use, is undamaged, and is not on a recall.” For these reasons, people are being urged to “round-up” their old safety seats and turn them in for a “reward” throughout the month of February.
Wal-Mart will be providing a $5 Walmart gift card for each seat (maximum 2 per person) turned in. Safety seats can be dropped off at the following locations February 1–28, 2017.
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Any AAA Tidewater Virginia branch location (Check www.AAA.com for locations)
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Hampton Roads Wal-Mart locations (excluding Williamsburg, North Main Street in Suffolk, and Gloucester)
The culmination of this month long annual campaign will be “Project Green”. The collected safety seats will be recycled by Waste Management of Virginia, Inc. Not only will recycling these seats eliminate the potential danger to children, it will provide positive benefits to the community by utilizing a “greener” alternative for disposal.
AAA Tidewater and other traffic safety organizations recommends that children be approximately 80 to 100 pounds and no shorter than 57 inches before graduating them to a seat belt. In the state of Virginia, it is required that all children under the age of 8 be properly restrained in a car seat or booster seat.
As part of North America’s largest motoring and leisure travel organization, AAA Tidewater Virginia provides its more than 330,000 members with travel, insurance, financial and automotive-related services. Since its founding AAA Tidewater Virginia has been a leader and advocate for the safety and security of all travelers. For more information, visit AAA.com and follow us on Twitter at Twitter.com/AAATidewaterVA or on Facebook at facebook.com/AAATidewaterVirginia