Drive Safe Hampton Roads joins forces with their community partners each February to collect old, used, and potentially unsafe child safety seats.
The Round-Up also serves to educate parents and caregivers about the possible dangers of using car seats that are over six years old (unless the manufacturer indicates otherwise), have been purchased secondhand, are missing parts, or have no traceable recall information.
For these reasons, DSHR and their community partners: AAA Tidewater Virginia, Waste Management of Virginia, Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters, Walmart, and 13NewsNow will be urging people to “round-up” their old safety seats and turn them in for a “reward” throughout the month of February. The goal of the Round-Up is to convince parents and caregivers to turn in their old, used or potentially dangerous safety seats so that they are not resold or given to unsuspecting parents or caregivers for use.
As an incentive to turn in old safety seats, DSHR will be providing a $5 Walmart gift card for each seat turned in (limit 2 rewards per person while supplies last). Safety seats can be dropped off at any of the 8 AAA Tidewater Virginia branch locations between February 1–29, 2020.
All 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 also provide positive benefits to the community by utilizing a “greener” alternative for disposal.
Drive Safe Hampton Roads would like to remind parents and caregivers that Virginia law requires all children under the age of eight to be properly restrained in an approved Department of Transportation (DOT) child restraint. This law applies to any driver, not just the parent or guardian, in any vehicle, on any highway in Virginia.
In addition, all children ages eight through seventeen years of age must be properly restrained in a safety belt, while seated in any seating position in a vehicle.
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