CENTRE CO., Pa. (WJAC) — A personal story of tragedy and loss turned into a lesson of caution to parents of small children. It was part of a child car seat safety event.
A child car seat safety event in Philipsburg served as a bitter reminder that not following the rules of child passenger safety can turn deadly – as told by one mother who lost a child one year ago on Wednesday.
Lori Rodriguez’s two-year-old daughter, Penny, was killed in a car crash along Route 453, in Bigler Township. Rodriguez says her daughter was a passenger in a relative's car.
"I never would have imagined that police would be knocking at my door that same evening to tell me my energetic, beautiful, curly-haired daughter was in a fatal car accident,"
Rodriguez said her daughter died from her injuries at the scene.
"It is unknown if Penny was in a car seat at all," Rodriguez said. "But what is -- one thing that is certain is that the car seat in the vehicle was expired."
She says she's turned her family's pain into purpose, and has dedicated herself to educating people about child safety in cars.
As part of Child Passenger Safety Week, Pennsylvania State Police and the Traffic Injury Prevention Project are holding several car seat checks in our viewing area, to make sure car seats are installed properly and safely.
"We do them free. It's a good chance for parents to come through the process, get a seat checked, even if they already have it installed, or are a little bit concerned as far as it goes with what the -- you know -- whether or not it's put in correctly or even if they have questions regarding the child passenger seat law," Pennsylvania State Trooper Bruce Morris said.
For more information on other child passenger safety events, click here.
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