By Dan Rahn
University of Georgia

Used properly, safety seats save children’s lives. The University
of Georgia has been teaching technicians to help people use child
safety seats right for 20 years. But all of those trainings have
been in English.

This fall, for the first time in Georgia and only the third time
in the United States, they’ll offer one in Spanish.

UGA’s Georgia Traffic Injury Prevention Institute, a Cooperative
Extension Service program funded by a Georgia Governor’s Office
of Highway Safety grant, will conduct the four-day CPS technician
training in Spanish at its training center in Conyers, Ga., Sept.
20-23.

“There have been two pilot trainings like this in Texas,” said
GTIPI Director Steve Davis. “We don’t know whether this one will
be identified as the third pilot or the first official training.”

Clear need

With the first-time training, the planners are concerned about
getting enough qualified participants. The need, though, is clear
to Marilu Montalvo, a bilingual GTIPI child passenger safety
trainer. A member of the National Child Passenger Safety Board,
Montalvo will be one of the instructors in the training.

Citing GTIPI traffic safety checks that have found a 90-percent
to 100-percent misuse of child safety seats, Montalvo said the
language barrier puts Latino or Hispanic families at particular
risk.

“Many of these parents have never had one minute of safety
training,” she said. “Often it’s hard just to get them to
understand that (using child safety seats) is the law.”

Who should come

The September training targets bilingual people who are motivated
to help Spanish-speaking parents and children, she said. It’s
ideal for community-based educators, medical interpreters, health
departments, community-based organizations and others who work
with Latino families.

The college-level training isn’t easy. Experts will use a 32-hour
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration curriculum in
Spanish to teach the knowledge and skills needed to become a
nationally certified CPS technician.

Participants must pass a written test (100 multiple-choice
questions) and hands-on skills assessment to get the national
certification.

Instructors will cover:

• The need for child passenger safety programs.
• Relevant federal laws and safety standards.
• Crash dynamics.
• Vehicle occupant protection systems.
• Choosing and using the right child restraint systems.
• Installing child restraints correctly.
• Dealing with misuse and compatibility issues.
• Safety in other vehicles.
• Organizing and coordinating occupant protection programs.

The cost is just $60, with a $30 rebate on successful completion
and certification, and covers an English-Spanish glossary and
other materials. But space is limited.

Along with the traffic safety focus, the training will provide
terms for medical interpreting for nurses, therapists, neonatal
units, labor-and-delivery staffs, pediatricians and birth center
classes.

To learn more about the training, or to sign up, call Montalvo at
1-800-342-9819 or (678) 413-4289. Or e-mail her at montalvo@uga.edu.

(Dan Rahn is a news editor with the University of Georgia
College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.)