Hamilton Plunket Newsletter August 2013

August 2013

HAMILTON PLUNKET NEWSLETTER - August 2013

Inside this Issue

Stay Active ! with Plunket 2

Volunteer of the Month 3

Fantastic $ 5 mini photo shoot offer from Plunket

Upcoming Parent Education Programmes

Contact Information Hamilton Plunket 12 Richmond Street PO BOX 138 HAMILTON 3240 Phone - 8393982

hamilton . newsletter @ plunket . org . nz

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BOOSTER SEATS FOR ‘ BIG KIDS ’

Plunket welcomes the passing into law of an increase in the age limit for the mandatory use of child car restraints from age 5 to age 7 . This will require children to be in an appropriate child restraint until their 7th birthday . Sue Campbell , Plunket ’ s National Child Safety Advisor , says this is good news . “ Car crashes are

“ The simple truth is that car seats and booster seats save lives . ”

one of the biggest dangers to New Zealand children . We have one of the highest child road fatality rates in the OECD . Around five children are killed or injured every week on this country ’ s roads . Today ’ s law change is a positive step towards reducing this number – it means that 5 and 6 year olds will be better protected . “ The simple truth is that car seats and booster seats save lives .” “ Without a booster seat , an adult seat belt sits too high on a child . The lap part of the belt rides up over their tummy and the sash part lies across the neck . In a crash this can result in serious head and spinal cord injuries and horrific injuries to the abdomen including ruptured livers and spleens ”. Ms Campbell says that these latest changes are a move towards aligning New Zealand legislation with that of other countries . “ Research shows that a child should remain in a booster seat until around 148cm tall . For the majority of children this is somewhere between 9 and 12 years of age ”, she says . “ In New Zealand we ’ re fortunate to have an increasing range of booster seats to fit children of all ages .” www . plunket . org . nz / safekids . org . nz

For Car seat sales and rentals come in and see our Car Seat Services team , 12 Richmond Street from 8:30am-2:30pm , Monday to Friday

Phone ( 07 ) 8392123 or hamiltoncarseats @ plunket . org . nz www . facebook . com / HamiltonPlunket www . nurturefamily . co . nz

The articles in this newsletter do not necessarily represent the views of Plunket , & Plunket accepts no liability in respect of them .

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