A car safety seat has to both fit the child and be installed right, Wiscasset Ambulance Service Emergency Medical Technician Kristin Draper said. Otherwise, if there’s a crash, “Any deviation from that can result in anything from a minor injury on up to death,” Draper said in a phone interview Monday.

In May, she and fellow WAS EMT Anita Sprague finished training together for national certification as child passenger safety technicians. The department paid for the training at United Training Center in Lewiston, part of United Ambulance, Draper said. Now the two want to put that training to use to help families make sure everything is in order.

Call the ambulance station at 882-8204 to set up a time, or turn out on either of two dates Draper and Sprague have planned at the station for child safety seat inspections and educational clinics. The first is this Saturday, Aug. 13; the other, Saturday, Sept. 17.  Both events run from 9 a.m. to noon.

The inspections are free and open to any parent or caregiver, regardless of where they live, Draper said. They should bring the vehicle the seat is used in, the seat, the child, and the manuals for both the seat and the vehicle.

If someone has lost a manual, Draper said she and Sprague can try to find the online version. The manuals are important because a product’s guidelines can vary. For example, a seat’s manual might call for only one position to place the seat in, but the car manual might not permit that position, she said.

“Plus this is to educate the caregiver. We want them to be able to find this info if they need to review it in the future.”

Draper said according to information provided during training for the certification, three out of four seats are installed wrong or are the wrong seat for the child.

Sprague said Tuesday that during the training, she realized the ways she was learning to properly secure children for travel were not how her children were secured when they were kids.

Looking ahead to Saturday’s event and the new service the department is offering as a result of the training, Sprague said she feels like she is giving back to the community and helping families with safety.

Besides adding the free inspection service, the department also plans to start giving away seats the Maine Bureau of Highway Safety supplies for families in need.

Unlike the inspections, however, Draper said the seats will be for Maine residents only, because need is verified through WIC, SNAP, TANF, MaineCare, or a foster family certificate. In addition, the child must not have already received a seat through the program, she said. Draper expects WAS to start the local distribution program Sept. 1.