Kids ID and Safety Seat Checks Offered At Oak Lawn Children's Museum

OAK LAWN, IL — Get your child safety car seats checked to make sure they’re properly installed and have an ID made for your kiddos, Saturday, Aug. 27. The Kids Identification and Safety Seat (KISS) event runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., at the Children’s Museum in Oak Lawn. 5100 Museum Drive, Oak Lawn.

The Illinois Tollway and Illinois State Police District 15 have been touring northern Illinois, hosting KISS events throughout the summer, to provide free kids’ ID cards and inspect and install child safety seats. In 2019, Operation Kid helped families and caregivers with 375 child safety seats checks and issued more than 850 kids’ ID cards to parents. The events were paused during the pandemic, but resumed in June.

Parents, grandparents and children attending Saturday’s KISS event will receive a free voucher to the Children’s Museum. No admission is required to participate in the KISS event.

To make it more fun for families, Oak Lawn’s KISS event features:

• Free identification cards for children ages 3 and older and child safety seat inspections and installations. Information provided on kids’ ID cards, including a child’s height, weight and fingerprints, can help law enforcement more quickly locate and recover a missing child.

• Touch-a-truck display featuring hands-on exploration of a Tollway H.E.L.P. truck, snowplow and local emergency vehicles.

• Trooper Cooper, a talking, child-sized Illinois State Police car that offers simple safety tips to toddlers and young children

• Kids indoor and outdoor play areas.

Properly installed child safety seats save lives and significantly reduce injuries in the event of a crash. Yet, Illinois State Police find that as many as 90 percent of child safety seats they inspect are improperly installed.

Illinois law also requires all children under age 8 to be properly secured in an appropriate child restraint system when riding in a vehicle with family or other caregivers. In addition, as of January 2019, children under age 2 years are required by Illinois law to ride rear-facing, unless the child weighs 40 or more pounds or is 40 or more inches tall, to protect their developing muscles and bones.

For more information about Operation Kid 2022 and to see additional activities at each event, visit the Illinois Tollway’s website.