News from around Lexington County, SC

Program Helps Make Car Seats Accessible to All Midlands Families

Buckle Buddies South Carolina, a program of Palmetto Health Children’s Hospital and Safe Kids Midlands, is now offering new and safe car seats to help increase the safe travel of child passengers. The car seats can be purchased at cost at the Birth Place on the 4th floor at Palmetto Health Richland. The program offers five types of car safety seats: infant car bed, infant carrier seat, convertible seat, forward facing seat with high weight harness and backless booster seat. The seats are priced about 60 percent less than consumer pricing. For car seat, pricing and discount details, visit www.safekidsmidlands.org/purchase.pdf

“The program is open to everyone in the community,” says Emily Marr, Safe Kids Midlands coordinator. “Discounts are available for those who attend a Child Passenger Safety Classes and for those showing financial need.”

Marr says that the goal of the program is to make new and safe car seats accessible to all families in the Midlands. “Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death and injury for children over one year of age. When properly installed, child safety seats can reduce the risk of death by 71 percent for infants and 54 percent for toddlers.” According to statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) seat belt usage increases the chances for surviving a crash by nearly 45 percent.

“Car seats are necessary to keep children safe while traveling on the road, however 95 percent of those on the road in South Carolina are not installed or used correctly,” says Marr. “This decreases their effectiveness in the event of an incident. Our goal is to help families get the right seat for their child and to ensure that the seat is installed and used correctly.”

Buckle Buddies offers other assistance in child passenger safety, including free monthly child passenger safety classes and car seat check-ups. Nationally certified technicians are available on-site to assist parents or caregivers with car seat installation and usage, answering any questions they may have. All of these events are free and are designed to decrease accidental injury or death in children.  To find an event near you, visit the Safe Kids Midlands Calendar of Events at www.safekidsmidlands.org.

For additional information, contact Emily Marr at safekidsmidlands@gmail.com or call (803) 434-2955 or visit www.safekidsmidlands.org

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About Children’s Hospital
Palmetto Health Children’s Hospital is the state’s first and only freestanding children’s hospital. Each year, Palmetto Health Children’s Hospital treats more than 80,000 sick and injured children. As a major pediatric referral center, Children’s Hospital maintains more than 30 medical subspecialties devoted strictly to children.

Glass Companies Lead the Charge to Support “Anti-Steering” Legislation

Columbia, S.C.| (Feb 16) – Sentors Jake Knotts, Creighton Coleman, Glenn Reese, Joel Lourie and Phil Leventis, with the support of Senator Ronnie Cromer and others in the legislature have sponsored a bill aimed at “Fighting Unfair Trade Practices”.  SC House Bill H.4042 passed 104-1 and has now moved on to the Senate.  Senate bill S.807 was approved with amendments yesterday by the Senate Committee on Banking and Insurance.  It will now be reviewed by a joint committee from both the House and Senate, and if approved, will move on to the full legislature.  Approximately 150 people, made up of glass company owners, manufacturer representatives and lobbyists, gathered at the State House yesterday to support the legislation.

The bill reads as follows:
“A BILL TO AMEND THE CODE OF LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1976, BY ADDING SECTION 39-5-31 SO AS TO MAKE IT AN UNFAIR TRADE PRACTICE FOR A MOTOR VEHICLE GLASS REPAIR BUSINESS THAT ADMINISTERS INSURANCE CLAIMS FOR MOTOR VEHICLE GLASS REPAIRS TO HAVE AN INSURED’S GLASS REPAIR BUSINESS REFERRED TO ITSELF OR TO USE INFORMATION TO SOLICIT BUSINESS.”  

The legislation centers around the issue of Third-Party Administrators.   Insurance companies use Third-Party Administrators to ensure quality work and fair pricing for consumers who file claims for various services, including motor vehicle windshield repair and replacement.  These companies offer a valuable service, and the bill is not intended to prevent insurance companies from using Third-Party Administrators.

The issue at hand revolves around specific companies who are not only serving as Third-Party Administrators for windshield glass claims, they own glass companies themselves.   Local glass companies are seeing fewer and fewer windshield claims because the current system does not prevent the Third Party Administrator from referring a glass claim to themselves.  This bill is intended to make such “inside referrals” illegal in the state of South Carolina.  Glass manufacturers, wholesalers and local glass companies consider this an “Unfair Trade Practice” and have strongly supported the bill.

For the full text of the bill, visit http://www.scstatehouse.gov/billsearch.php.