Fort Washington PA, Lap Belt Cinch, Inc. (LBC), developer of the CG-Lock technology and makers of the CG-Lock, SeatSnug and SeatSnug-MAX occupant safety products, continues to receive accolades from industry peers both at home and abroad. Adding to their growing list of awards and achievements, an esteemed panel of international media judges recognized LBC with one of SEMA’s highest honors, the 2010 SEMA Global Media Award, for introducing one of the best new products at this year’s SEMA show, the child safety device SeatSnug. Winning products are chosen based on the level of consumer appeal each has in the journalist’s respective country.

Accepting the award in front of more than 100,000 attendees at the SEMA Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada, Charles Carter, CEO of LBC, stated “We are honored and most proud to receive this award which validates our CG-Lock technology and the contribution it has made to passenger safety. Through this award and the international recognition SEMA brings to our products more lives will be saved.”

The patented SeatSnug is a small palm sized safety device that easily clips on an existing seatbelt to enhance the safety and comfort of children riding in booster seats. It allows you to gently tighten the lap belt over a child’s upper thighs and hips by simply pulling the shoulder strap until it rests snug against the child. The SeatSnug lets the shoulder strap operate more effectively while preventing slack from developing in the lap belt, which helps safely secure the child.

Originally developed as an aftermarket product for the performance driving market CG-Lock made its worldwide debut by securing international stunt drivers during the filming of such movies as National Treasure starring Nicholas Cage, James Bond’s Quantum of Solace starring Daniel Craig and as the “secret safety device” used by the STIG in the popular #1 BBC show Top Gear. The CG-Lock improves overall seatbelt performance to enhance driver control and to enhance the safety and comfort of the user.

Earlier this year LBC announced a major nationwide safety campaign aimed at promoting greater child passenger safety and awareness, the SeatSnug “Snug Up America” campaign. To join SeatSnug in helping to raise awareness by educating others on child passenger safety issues and the available solutions visit www.seatsnug.com and click on the “SnugUp America” button to see how you can make a difference.

Lap Belt Cinch, Inc. is the developer and patent holder of CG-Lock technology. Its aftermarket products, the CG-Lock, SeatSnug & SeatSnug-MAX, have been extensively crash tested and are designed to enhance driver control, improve safety, reduce the risk of injuries in vehicular accidents and save lives. The CG-Lock, which has been certified for SCCA events, is used widely by the Hollywood stunt industry and has been featured in a series of sports car magazines. SeatSnug has been featured on ABC and the Fox News TV channels and can be purchased at leading national retailers.

Fort Washington PA, Lap Belt Cinch, Inc. (LBC), developer of the CG-Lock technology and makers of the performance driving CG-Lock device and the child safety product SeatSnug, today received the prestigious Editor’s Choice Award from Popular Mechanic’s Magazine in front of more than 100,000 attendees at this year’s SEMA Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada. In receiving the award from Jim Meigs, Editor in Chief of Popular Mechanics, Charles Carter, CEO of LBC, stated “We are honored and most proud to receive this award which validates our CG-Lock technology and the contribution it has made to passenger safety. Through this award and the recognition Popular Mechanics brings to our products more lives will be saved.”

Recipient of The National Parenting Center Seal of Approval, the SeatSnug is a small palm sized safety device that clips onto existing seatbelts to allow slack to be removed in the lap belt, keeping the user in the safest possible position. Seatbelt slack is acknowledged in the auto industry as a major contributor to injuries and deaths in vehicular accidents. LBC’s newest safety device, the SeatSnug-Max, is up for six “Best New Product” awards and fills a safety need for adults and teens which Carter states is “well overdue”.

“For almost every age group motor vehicle crashes are one of the leading causes of injury and death”, states Carter, ” Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for U.S. teens, accounting for more than one in three deaths in this age group. Last year more than 2 million people were injured in motor vehicle accidents; our line of safety products can reduce these injuries and help save lives”, says an impassioned Carter. “We now have a complete line of safety products; the CG-Lock for our performance drivers, the SeatSnug for children in booster seats and now the SeatSnug-MAX for teens and adults.”

Originally developed as an aftermarket product for the performance driving market CG-Lock made its worldwide debut by securing international stunt drivers in movies such as National Treasure starring Nicholas Cage, James Bond’s Quantum of Solace starring Daniel Craig and as the “secret safety device” used by the STIG in the popular #1 BBC show Top Gear. The CG-Lock improves overall seatbelt performance to enhance driver control and to enhance the safety and comfort of the user.

Earlier this year CG-Lock announced a major nationwide safety campaign aimed at promoting greater child passenger safety and awareness. The SeatSnug “Snug Up America” campaign was launched to coincide with the National Child Passenger Safety program sponsored by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and is being supported by SeatSnug and nationally recognized Safety Mom, Alison Rhodes.

To join SeatSnug in helping to raise awareness by educating others on child passenger safety issues and the available solutions visit www.seatsnug.com and click on the “SnugUp America” button to see how you can make a difference.

Lap Belt Cinch, Inc. is the developer and patent holder of CG-Lock technology. Its aftermarket products, the CG-Lock, SeatSnug & SeatSnug-MAX, have been extensively crash tested and are designed to enhance driver control, improve safety, reduce the risk of injuries in vehicular accidents and save lives. The CG-Lock, which has been certified for SCCA events, is used widely by the Hollywood stunt industry and has been featured in a series of sports car magazines. SeatSnug has been featured on ABC and the Fox News TV channels and can be purchased at leading national retailers.

Apparently children who are not properly strapped into the defective strollers have been strangled as they can slide through an opening between the stroller tray and bottom of the seat. If this happens children can get stuck and be strangled. The Christian Science Monitor reports that, “the Consumer Product Safety Commission, which announced the recall Wednesday, said the four infants became trapped inside the strollers and were strangled. The deaths occurred between 2003 and 2005.”

We urge ALL parents who have purchased a stroller in the past 10 years to do a proper check on their Graco to ensure that it is not one of the defective models. Laurent Belsie, Staff Writer at The Christian Science Monitor reports that, “the models involved are Graco Quattro Tour strollers and travel systems that were made before November 2006 and MetroLite strollers and travel systems manufactured before July 2007. The strollers sold for between $90 and $250.”

The defective strollers and travel systems were sold between 2000 and 2007. To see if your stroller is affected by the recall, check the model number, located near the rear wheels or underneath the stroller, against the list of recalled models available on gracobaby.com. If your stroller matches a model number on the list you can get a free repair kit by visiting the company’s website www.gracobaby.com or calling Graco toll-free: (877) 828-4046. As parents it’s our duty to ensure the safety of our children. Remember that accidents do happen, but you can prevent injuries.

The Evenflo recall was completely voluntary on behalf of the company, which they should be commended for. As of right now, there are no reported incidents from the public involving the Maestro booster seat. Those consumers who purchased one of the defective models, which are models starting with the model number 310, and registered their purchase, will receive a notice about the defect. To find your model number simply look at the white label behind the seat and above the shoulder belt slot. Evenflo will then send out parts to help fix the problem.

It seems like Evenflo Co. is taking proactive steps to address the problem, which is definitely a good thing. With that said, as parents, we all have to be vigil about the products we use around our children. This is especially true for child safety products like Booster Seats. It’s important to find the right booster seat for your child and install your booster seat properly because accidents happen, but you can prevent injuries to your children.

If you purchased a Maestro Booster Seat you can go to the company’s website, www.evenflo.com, for more information. You can call 1-800-233-5921 between 8 AM and 5 PM EDT to get a free reinforcement kit.

With the hustle and bustle that fills our everyday lives many of us don’t take time to read instructions these days. We tear off the packaging from our recent purchase and we learn by doing. One product that we cannot afford to skip out on reading the instructions for is a child safety seat. Even when we do read the instructions, and as simple as it may seem to install, many times the child restraints are not properly used, which leads to very unfortunate results in the case of an accident.

As parents we all should spend the extra time learning for ourselves how to properly restrain our children in the car, but we should also follow the advice of experts. NHTSA has made it easy for parents across the United States to learn how to properly use child safety seats and child restraints by creating a Child Safety Seat Inspection Station locator. Simply enter your zip code or state and you will get access to information from the closest station to you. You can also choose to show locations with Spanish-speaking technicians, and/or those stations that offer local Child Passenger Safety events.

It’s important that we all understand how to properly restrain our children while they are in the car. Unfortunately accidents happen, but you can prevent injuries with a little knowledge. Luckily NHTSA has made it easy for all of us to find the help and information that we need. Go ahead and setup an appointment at a Child Safety Seat Inspection Station near you.

CONGRATULATIONS to Carol Naes –> WINNER of the September SeatSnug Giveaway! Will you be our lucky winner for October? Continue reading the post to find out how you can get entered into the October Giveaway.

In celebration of Halloween, this month’s SeatSnug Giveaway centers around Halloween costumes. Simply leave a comment here on this blog article letting us know what your kids are dressing up as for Halloween this year, OR do the same thing on the SeatSnug Facebook Wall. If you decide to leave a comment on our Facebook wall, which we would prefer — this way you can share your Halloween costume ideas with the SeatSnug community — it would be GREAT if you would upload a picture of your little goblins in their outfits! If you don’t want to share a picture of your child we totally understand and don’t want to make anyone feel uncomfortable. With that said, if your little guys and gals look super great in their Halloween costume then go ahead and upload it to our Facebook Wall and get entered into the October SeatSnug Giveaway!

As a reminder to everyone who has been participating, and wants to participate this month, there are three main steps to giving yourself a chance to win a free SeatSnug. The first two steps only have to be completed once, whereas the third step is a monthly activity.

The three steps to participating in the SeatSnug Giveaway Contest are:

1. Register for the SeatSnug Giveaway Contest
2. Confirm your registration via an email notification - The email notification gets sent to the registration email address as soon as you submit your registration. Simply click the link within the email to confirm. If you don’t receive an email, check your Junk Mail Folder.
3. Participate in the Monthly Facebook activity - In October, we are asking all participants to share their Halloween costume ideas here on our blog or on the SeatSnug Facebook Wall.

We hope that you participate in this month’s SeatSnug Giveaway, as we want to get the word out about the benefits of SeatSnug to as many people as possible. Do you have any suggestions for future contests? Leave a comment below to let us know your thoughts.

Toni Perry was getting ready for her 4th birthday. She was a beautiful little girl who loved to sing & dance. She enjoyed nature and would spend hours playing in the dirt with her older sister. Toni was loved by her parents, grandparents, & siblings. Full of life, and seemingly destined to go on to do great things as she grew up, little Toni’s life was cut short. She was traveling in a car with just an adult seat belt when an accident occurred. The force of the accident caused the seat belt to constrict, crushing little Toni’s chest in the process. Toni died on May 15, 1999.

Toni was only restrained by an adult seat belt, which caused the chest injuries that stole away her life. Had she have been properly restrained in an age appropriate car seat she may have survived. The Perry’s have rededicated their lives to Toni’s Legacy. They want to help educate parents who may be going through the exact same thing as they did. The video above was put together to help reach young parents with the Perry’s message.

Be sure to explain to your children how Booster Seats protect them. Hopefully they will see just how cool it is to use Booster Seats while traveling in the car.

Alison Rhodes, “The Safety Mom,” is a nationally-recognized expert in child safety dedicated to educating parents on ways to keep their kids safe. Most parents have a pretty good idea about babyproofing their home, however, there are some hidden dangers that many parents don’t know about or wouldn’t naturally recognize as a risk. Alison Rhodes has dedicated her life to sharing tips on how to make the home and vehicles as safe as possible for little ones.

Check out this great video clip of Alison Rhodes on KTLA Los Angeles. We encourage you to watch the entire video, as Alison goes over a bunch of great child safety products. With that said, if you want to jump right into the SeatSnug portion of the video, simply fast forward the video player to approximately 3 minutes, 30 seconds into the video.

Alison Rhodes has be a great supporter of ours and once you know her story you know that she truly wants to help other parents avoid child tragedies. You can help us promote greater child passenger safety and awareness by signing up for Snug-Up America. It’s totally free. Our goal is to educate parents and caregivers on how to properly install and use child safety seats. Together we can help reduce the amount of child tragedies across the country.

Doing their part to help make booster seats “cool” is the Detroit rap group Slum Village. Slum Village partnered with Safe Kids Worldwide and Chevrolet for a national program developed to educate parents about car safety & the importance of using the proper restraints for children during trips in the car. Together Slum Village and Safe Kids Worldwide created a booster seat safety rap song to help get the message out. Elzhi from Slum Village believes there’s a bond between today’s youth and hip-hop music, which will allow their safety message to fall on willing ears and be accepted by kids. Check out the video below for a full news report on this incredible partnership.

SIT, PULL, CROSS, CLICK is the song’s 4-step slogan combined with the message that booster seats are “cool”. By using a booster seat, kids 8 - 10 are raised up to a height that provide maximum safety through seat belts. It’s nice to see musicians and entertainers taking time to send a positive message to our youth. Booster seat safety is imperative when riding in the car with your children and through your efforts, and the efforts of Slum Village, Chevrolet, and Safe Kids Worldwide, we can all make booster seats “cool” for our kids.

The goal of Child Passenger Safety Week is to make sure all children are secured properly in appropriate seats – every trip, every time. During Child Passenger Safety Week (September 19-25), parents and caregivers are urged to make sure their child safety seats and booster seats are properly installed and used in their vehicles.

Children are our country’s most precious resource. As parents and caregivers it is our responsibility to keep America’s children safe. Every year, thousands of children are tragically injured or killed in motor vehicle traffic crashes. For children age 3 and older, it is the leading cause of death. It is hard to overstate the toll this takes on families. Together we can put an end to this.

Here are some very telling statistics from National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Child safety seats and booster seats save lives – offering the best protection for children in the event of a crash.

• Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for children 3 to 14 years old (based on 2006 figures from the National Center for Health Statistics).
• According to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), approximately 8,959 lives have been saved from 1975 to 2008 by the proper use of child safety seats.
• Child safety seats reduce the likelihood of an infant (under 1 year old) being killed in a vehicle crash by 71 percent, and reduce the likelihood to toddlers (1 to 4 years old) by 54 percent.
• Children ages 4 to 7 who use booster seats are 45 percent less likely to be injured in car crashes than children who are restrained only by seat belts, according to a study by Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
• All 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have laws requiring children to be restrained while riding in cars.

Here are two instructional videos for properly installing a Booster Seat with No Back and a Booster Seat with a Back.

Safety Mom Alison Rhodes and SeatSnug have joined forces to promote greater child passenger safety and awareness during National Child Passenger Safety Week! SeatSnug is committed to working closely with our partners and safety advocates to help reduce the number of young lives lost on our roadways. Our goal is to educate parents and caregivers on how to properly install and use child safety seats. During Child Passenger Safety Week, there will be hundreds of free child safety seat inspection stations set up across the country. I encourage all parents and caregivers to take advantage of this service and ensure that their children are getting the very best protection. SeatSnug urges everyone to help reduce injuries and the tragic loss of life by buckling up themselves and every child on every trip, every time.

YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE TOO! Subscribe for free to the Snug-Up America Newsletter. We will keep you informed of current trends and laws surrounding child passenger safety. As a bonus, you will also be entered into our drawing for a free SeatSnug each month automatically.

Whether you sign up for our newsletter or not, we hope that you take this week to educate yourself on the importance of child passenger safety. You can find great information on our site and many others, like Child Passenger Safety.