"Family Safety Fair" to be held with Swan Festival in Wareham
Experts will help teach correct use of car seats and safety belts

For Immediate Release	Contact: Joyce Faria Brennan
June 6, 2005	508-961-5270
	brennanj@southcoast.org
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WAREHAM, Mass. — Find out how to better protect your children and other family members at the "Family Safety Fair" being held during this year's Swan Festival on Saturday, June 18, in Wareham.

Sponsored by Tobey Hospital, the Wareham site of Southcoast Hospitals Group, the safety fair will feature car seat inspections at Tobey Hospital and a Safety Booth at the Swan Festival.

Car Seat Inspections will be held, rain or shine, in the main parking lot of Tobey Hospital on High Street in Wareham from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Certified car seat inspectors will conduct the free car seat inspections to evaluate the installation of all types of child safety seats and demonstrate proper installation if the seats are not installed correctly.

While most parents use car seats and seatbelts for their children, many do not use them correctly.

"The vast majority of parents place their children in safety seats, however, many aren't aware of how to install them correctly. This sometimes results in injuries to children if they are involved in even minor car accidents," said Steven Mendes, MD, a pediatrician at Wareham Pediatrics and a member of the planning committee for the Safety Fair.

In fact, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that more than 70 percent of child restraints, including car seats and safety belts, are used incorrectly.

"Parents may be surprised to learn that accidental injuries, especially those affecting children, are the major cause of childhood death and disability. Close to a million accidental injuries are reported annually in Massachusetts. And at Tobey Hospital, injuries to children and teens account for well over 2,000 emergency room visits every year," Dr. Mendes said.

Tobey Hospital will also have a safety booth at the Swan Festival.

About Southcoast

Southcoast Health System, a not-for-profit charitable organization, is a community based health delivery system with multiple access points, offering an integrated continuum of health services throughout Southeastern Massachusetts and East Bay, Rhode Island. It includes Southcoast Hospitals Group, formed in 1996 from the merger of Charlton Memorial Hospital in Fall River, St. Luke's Hospital in New Bedford and Tobey Hospital in Wareham.

Southcoast is one of three community hospitals approved by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health to perform open heart surgery and primary angioplasty beginning in Spring 2002.

Media Contact

Joyce Faria Brennan
Phone: 508-961-5270
Pager: 508-387-9605
Fax: 508-961-5876
brennanj@southcoast.org