How to find a car seat tech in Calgary??

[EllasMum]

Point taken, Tam! Does your team require people to signup for the clinics? For example, do you advertise upcoming clinics and then require people to signup rather than just showing up? The clinics here in Calgary ended loooong before I had my baby, so I don't know what they were like. It occurs to me that if the clinics were on a signup only basis (in other words, not drop-in), it might be easier for the techs not to be overwhelmed with the workload and make it easier on them overall. I wondered about the liability issue - which you briefly addressed in your post. Interesting. I'm sure every parent who has been assisted by a car seat tech is much reassured and feels much more secure on the road with their little ones. You folks do a great service! I think it may be time to contact my alderman and put in my 2 cents regarding the reinstatement of the clinics. Car seats are basically a big mystery to alot of us and it would be nice to have the peace of mind that an installation review would provide! I'm getting all fired up - time to go hunt for my alderman's email address! Keep up the good work, Tam - you and all the other techs out there! Your work is appreciated! :-)

[hipmaman]

We can only do clinics by-appointment-only to be fair to all that are on the waiting list. We don't turn away walk-in, but they don't have priority and have to wait if appointments show up, kwim?

I do enjoy CRS practice and that's why I'm still doing it. But I do worry that we don't have enough techs/volunteers to satisfy the ever increasingly high demand. The other issue we have is techs have busy lives (especially volunteer ones and would do clinics on their 'free' time) sometimes leave the service. A lost of a trained tech is hard on our team, especially when we get to know them well.

[NewfieNat]

I'm not sure about the original question, but I want to add that I was actually stopped by police for a car seat check a few weeks ago. It was near Crowchild and 5th Ave. NW. They had traffic slowed way down and pulled over every car with a car seat. Then a woman from the CHR checked the seat, the CMVSA sticker, the tether, the shoulder belt, the harness, etc. She said mine was fine but I'm sure they gave out lots of warnings/tickets. I was so surprised. I thought that sort of thing was an urban myth. Oh and by the way, she said she had never seen the Britax hugs system before.

Natalie

[Neatfreak]

That's actually kind of neat, Natalie! I kind of wonder what the police would make of the rf tether on the MA, considering it's only Britax who have them and this is a land of Graco and Cosco/Dorel seats ...

Tam, it was really interesting to read your perspective on seat checks and being a person who does them :)

[EllasMum]

> I was actually stopped by police for a car seat check a
>few weeks ago. ... I was so surprised. I thought that sort of
>thing was an urban myth.

VERY INTERESTING! I just had a discussion (OK it was an argument) with my mother about the concept of car seat checks done by police and she figured I was making it up... and now here's someone who's actually been through one, and in CALGARY no less! Glad to hear you made it through ok. I wonder how much a ticket would be for an improperly used (or whatever) car seat??

[EllasMum]

>I wonder how
>much a ticket would be for an improperly used (or whatever)
>car seat??

I found the answer to this - today I met with a car seat tech (yes, I found one - thanks for the referral Tam!), and she tells me that the tickets are $115 per infraction (this is in Calgary) - so if you had the seat properly installed but didn't do up the chest buckle, or had the harness to loose you'd get a ticket for $115. If you had the seat in incorrectly and also had the harness too loose, you'd be looking at $230! Yikes! Crazily enough she said that if you could be driving in a car and merely holding your child in your arms and you'd still only get a ticket for $115! Scary stuff. She said they do give out alot of warnings but if the problems are severe enough they do write out alot of tickets too. I was glad I had my installation checked over - we did an ok job but she was able to get a great recline with the ol' pool noodle and tether combination. Now DD is snug as a bug! Thanks again for the referral, Tam!

[bubbaray]

THere was a police car seat roadblock in my area (suburb of Vancouver, BC) about a year ago. The media reported on it and apparently they were giving out fines of up to $500 (but that might have been for unrestrained children -- scary that we still see that!).

They do checks here mainly looking for the Cdn inspection stickers (we are close to the border, lots of cross-border shopping).


Melissa

Maya Papaya!
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[EllasMum]

>apparently they were giving out fines of up to $500 (but that
>might have been for unrestrained children -- scary that we
>still see that!).
>

That's more or less what the tech I spoke to said. She said that if your child was unrestrained you'd get a fine of $115 but if you had a seat in but were using it incorrectly it could be a MUCH higher fine. Craziness! She said they once pulled over a mini-van with several car seats inside, all being used incorrectly, and they ended up writing tickets totalling more than $1500! Doesn't make much sense, does it? You'd think the big fines would be for unrestrained children rather than improperly restrained ones. I'd like to see the justification for those laws! <ahem, stepping down off soapbox now>