Keep car safety in mind as you travel for the holidays.

Buckle your seat belts, have kids strapped into car seats correctly without their coats on, and have cargo in designated areas. Katrina Altenhofen, a state certified instructor and who started the program in 1997 when she was the state’s director for emergency medical services for children, explains the importance of putting cargo in the trunk or cargo area of an SUV or van, “We are packing that full of everything because we are headed to grandma’s house, or grandma is going to pack us full. I can remember heading down to southern Illinois and everything was packed to the rooftop. Realize that anything that isn’t tied down goes flying in the event of a crash. The simple method is to think weight times speed. So if I’ve wrapped up a toolbox that I’m taking to grandpa, that toolbox, the weight of it times 30 miles an hour, 40 miles, 50 miles an hour is the amount of crash force that is going to come flying at you and your child in the event of a crash.”

For more safety tips on car seats and booster seats listen to the Washington Page program with Altenhofen here and here.