GREENSBURG, IN — The Greensburg Fire Department and Decatur County Memorial Hospital (DCMH) teamed up late Thursday afternoon for a free drive-thru car seat installation clinic at Fire Station 1 on Ireland Street.
Janine Walter was one of the DCMH staffers on hand who are National Highway Traffic Safety Administration-certified to install car seats.
“We have to go through a typically four-day training course to get certified, and then you have to do continuing education to keep your certification up,” Walter said.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Walter said the hospital tried to do at least one car seat installation clinic a year.
“We usually do a “Mommy and Me” expo where we hosted our event most of the time, but now that the fire department has a couple of guys here who are certified, we’re happy to team up, and the more resources, the better,” she said.
Firefighter Donnathon Buckley says three department members become certified last summer.
“It’s just a way to better serve our community,” Buckley said. “The hospital is actually our hub for the car seat tech stuff, so we’re kind of helping them out. We’re just housing the event for that.”
As for the number of clinics the fire department has conducted in recent memory…
“Every shift (on duty in the fire station) has a car seat tech, so a lot of times they’ll call us and ask us to do it, but this is our first actual event that we’ve done like this,” Buckley added.
The fire department and the hospital plan to get together for more car seat clinics in the future.
