63-ton tank will crush unsafe child passenger seats

Saturday, Feb. 10, 2001 | 10:09 a.m.

The assault on the child passenger safety seats with the 63-ton tank is planned Tuesday morning at a construction site on the campus of Truckee Meadows Community College.

The A-1, M-1 Abrams is on loan from the Army National Guard in Carson City.

The stunt is planned as part of National Child Passenger Safety Week. Sponsors want to highlight problems with defective or recalled child safety seats, as well as the proper installation of the seats.

REMSA's Point of Impact program has inspected 2,708 child safety seats over the past three years and found only 114 to be correctly installed, officials said. The program has replaced 898 seats found to be defective or on a manufacturer's recall list.

The Nevada Highway Patrol is launching a special enforcement blitz as part of the child safety week with special emphasis on drunk drivers and "deadbeat drivers who fail to buckle up children," Trooper Rocky Gonzalez said.

"Often these are the same people," Gonzalez said Friday.

"Our agency has zero tolerance for irresponsible drivers who needlessly put children in danger. If you put innocent lives at risk by not buckling up kids or by driving drunk, we're going to find you," he said.

Extra Washoe County sheriff's deputies also are being assigned to patrol high-accident areas in the county next week, Sheriff Dennis Balaam said.

"We will be paying particular attention to child passenger safety laws and hazardous moving violations," he said.

Traffic crashes are the leading cause of death to children under 14, Gonzalez said. Six out of ten children who die in crashes are completely unrestrained.