Spanish speakers sparse at car-seat safety classes

Fourteen people gathered on a Saturday morning in June to learn about car-seat safety in English.

Down the hall at the Banner Desert Medical Center, only one woman came to learn the same lessons in Spanish.

Some of the participants were attending the classes to clear up citations for car-seat violations, which can exceed $100. Some were foster parents, required to attend. Others were expecting their first child or wanted to learn how to safely transport their sons and daughters.

The class is called Children Are Priceless Passengers (CAPP). It is open to the public but focuses on attendees with car-seat violations. Last year, CAPP taught more than 800 people how to secure their children.

The majority of the classes are offered in English and Spanish, but participants seldom come to the Spanish class voluntarily. Only six Spanish speakers (3 percent) came without a citation last year, compared to 131 English speakers (21 percent) without citations.

Reaching Spanish speakers is critical.

Despite the best of intentions, roughly four out of five parents don’t install car seats correctly, a consistent rate for decades, according to repeated surveys and medical studies.

Hispanic and Native American parents are even less likely to buy and use car seats correctly, for a variety of cultural and economic reasons. An analysis of studies by The Arizona Republic found that, depending on the child’s age, the type of seat and other factors, Hispanic and Native American children were from two times to as much as 10 times more likely not to be properly restrained.

As a result, Hispanic and Native American children are killed or injured in car accidents at significantly higher rates than other children, the studies indicate.

That reporting prompted The Republic to bring together a coalition of community groups that is working to promote car-seat safety through the campaign Seat Them Safely.

Sandra Lopez-Gascar was the lone student in the Spanish training session that Saturday. She held 2-year-old Esdres in her lap while he pushed his stroller back and forth. She was trying to entertain him while simultaneously learning a lesson that could save his life.

“There are five ways a car seat can prevent injuries,” instructor Mónica Falcón, a community outreach specialist with the Maricopa County Department of Health, told Lopez-Gascar in Spanish.

The seats:

Falcón paused from her instruction to wave to Esdres, who was now toddling around the room.

“Children are very little, very fragile,” Falcón said. “It is very important to use a seat and to use it correctly.”

CAPP classes began in 1993

The Tempe Police Department partnered with the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety, Tempe St. Luke’s Hospital and Tempe Municipal Court to create CAPP classes back in 1993.

For a $35 fee, attendees’ car-seat safety citations are waived. The two-hour class also offers a free new car seat to anyone who needs one. Car seats usually cost upwards of $65 commercially, the CAPP instructors said.

In the past five years, 2,895 free seats were distributed through CAPP classes.

Alberto Gutier, director of the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety, recommends that every parent, regardless of ethnicity, attend the class.

“It’s going to show them the value of not only installing the child safety seat properly, but installing the kid safely,” he said.

This fiscal year, Gutier’s agency approved $50,000 to be used toward CAPP classes.

Currently, 10 locations across the state offer CAPP classes. Six locations also instruct in Spanish.

The majority of attendees last year, more than 80 percent, participated to reduce a citation. The English class drew 514 participants; the Spanish version taught 195.

“The English speakers are more aware of the class,” Falcón said. “If they (Spanish-speakers) get pulled over by an officer, they may end up here.”

‘We’re not judging’

On this June Saturday, Safe Kids Maricopa volunteer Blanca Barrera taught the 14 English speakers.

“We’re not judging,” she told her class.

The class is not a punishment, but a chance to save a child’s life, she said. Barrera knows attendees with citations initially see the class as mandatory drag on a weekend morning.

“They don’t really come to be open minded right away,” she said. “Once they start to see the video of the crash dynamic and what can happen in an accident, then they become the person who wants to be there, who wants to learn all the information to keep their child safe.”

In this class, unusually, only two attendees — a college student who drove her younger brother unbuckled and a father who didn’t want to move his sleeping child — had received citations.

Pilar Liu came to the class two weeks before the due date of her son. She was drawn by the allure of receiving a free car seat.

Liu is from Mexico City and moved to Arizona two decades ago.

In Mexico, laws and perception about car seats are different she explained. “Some people don’t think car seats and seat belts are necessary,” she said.

Liu said all parents, no matter their background, should learn about car-seat safety.

“People don’t pay attention until something horrible happens,” Liu said. “And then it’s too late.”

The temperature was over 100 degrees outside by the time the English class finished inside.

Barrera climbed into Liu’s car in heels to demonstrate how to install the seat.

Normally, Liu would be required to fasten in the new car seat herself. But since Liu was more than 8 months pregnant, Barrera let her watch.

“Was that easy? Do you think you can do that?” she asked Liu when she finished.

Liu nodded. To protect her son — his name will be Andres William, she thinks — she can do that.

“As a parent, you can do something about your child’s safety,” Liu said. “Maybe you cannot prevent an accident. You can get a car seat and save their life.”

Liu drove off, a new brand new red and black car seat secure in her back seat.

Too small can be a problem

Over in the one-person Spanish class, Lopez-Gascar listened intently to a video explaining weight and height limits for different types of seats.

Before coming to the class, Lopez-Gascar was buckling 2-year-old Esdres into an infant seat that was too small for him.

She was at a clinic a few weeks earlier when a nurse saw the seat and paid for Lopez-Gascar to attend the CAPP class. Through the class, she will get a new seat for free.

During the CAPP pre-test, Lopez-Gascar struggled. How tight should the harness straps be? At what age and height can a child switch to a booster seat?

By the end of the two-hour class, Esdres had discovered he loved playing with the TV remote and his mother could answer all the questions correctly.

Falcón drove Lopez-Gascar back to the bus station with Esdres safe in a new car seat, which will be used in their family car.

“I really liked the class,” Lopez-Gascar said. “It’s nice to know how to place the kids in the seats, how to properly buckle them up. In case of an accident, it’s nice knowing that information.”

Falcón said she was relieved to see that Esdres is now in the correct seat and his mom will know how to properly use it.

There are several barriers keeping other Spanish speakers from the class, Falcón believes. They include the $35 fee for those with low incomes, fear of attending a government class for those who are undocumented and a culture originating in Mexico of not using car seats.

With more outreach, Falcón thinks the numbers for the Spanish training classes could change.

“It’s just a matter of spreading the word and parents actually attending the classes,” she said.

Where to take CAPP classes

Children Are Priceless Passengers programs are offered to offenders and non-offenders of Arizona state child passenger safety laws. For $35, parents/caregivers will receive two hours of car-seat information and one-on-one coaching on proper use of car seats. Car seats resources are reserved for the most-needy cases. Each location has its own class time and location. You must call to pre-register. The sites:

Tempe Police Department, 1855 E. Apache Blvd. Tempe, Arizona 85281. Registration: 480-350-8376

Banner Desert Medical Center, 1400 South Dobson Road Mesa, Arizona 85202, Registration: 602-230-2273

Phoenix Children’s Hospital, 1919 E. Thomas, Phoenix, AZ 85016, Registration: 602-546-CAPP (2277)

St. Joseph’s Hospital & Medical Center, 3115 N. 3rd Ave. #132, Phoenix 85013, Registration: 877- 602-4111

Del E. Webb Memorial Hospital, 14502 W. Meeker Blvd., Sun City West 85375, Registration: 602-230-CARE (2273)