Sunday, an Angels Camp woman and five children headed north on Highway 49. The car was traveling about 55 mph when one of the children distracted the woman, the California Highway Patrol reported.

In an instant, she lost control of her car and it drifted off the pavement. Then it skidded back across both lanes of traffic, shot down an embankment and overturned.

Gilbert Patterson, an infant, had been placed in a child safety seat, but it had not been secured properly, the CHP reported. The baby and the seat were ejected from the car, and the child suffered major injuries when he landed on his head.

Wednesday, the baby was listed in good condition at the University of California at Davis Medical Center in Sacramento.

He appears to be one of the lucky ones.

"These children can't speak for themselves," said Anne Stokman, project director of Keep Baby Safe, a Stanislaus County car seat program. "For many years, motor vehicle accidents have been the No. 1 preventable killer of children."

The Modesto Police Department and Keep Babies Safe combine forces to hold child safety seat checkpoints throughout the year. The two staged one Wednesday along Sisk Road.

The main purposes were to ensure that parents had their children properly fastened into child safety devices and to raise awareness of a coming change in state law.

Existing law requires children under 4 years old and those who weigh less than 40 pounds to be properly secured in child safety seats or booster seats. Beginning Jan. 1, those requirements apply to children under the age of 6 or those who weigh less than 60 pounds.

The key word in the law is "properly," Stokman said.

"Sometimes children have the seat belt strap rubbing against their neck," officer Gary Wilson said, "and they'll throw the shoulder strap behind their backs to be more comfortable. This (law) is meant to stop things like that from happening. Seat belts used properly should go across the chest and shoulder area, and across the hip area."

At Wednesday's checkpoint, Keep Baby Safe workers checked 87 cars carrying 95 children, Stokman said. Ten of the 15 children older than 4 years were buckled incorrectly or not at all, meaning many of them needed booster seats. Of 80 children 4 years of age and under, 79 were incorrectly strapped into car seats.

As startling as those numbers are, they're nothing new. Nationally, 95 percent of car seats are misused, according to Safe Kids, a national organization for child safety.

Police gave one ticket Wednesday to a parent whose child had no car seat. Officers issued about eight verbal warnings.

The bulk of Wednesday's violations were problems such as loose shoulder straps, loose seat belts and improperly used seat belt locking clips.

One of the first cars to pass through the checkpoint carried two grandparents driving with their grandchild. Police looked in back and noticed the child sitting in the safety seat -- on top of the shoulder straps.

"They had stopped at Babies R Us to get the child a pacifier," Stokman said. "They said they were just going a little ways, but the potential for disaster was there. People don't think it's going to happen to them."

But it happens all the time.

Saturday in Merced, an Atwater teen ran a stop sign and slammed into a Pontiac that held a Modesto family of five, the CHP reported.

Angela Cervantes, a 30-year-old woman riding in the Pontiac, died from her injuries. Her three children -- a 15-year-old girl, a 12-year-old boy and a 3-month-old girl -- were thrown from the vehicle and suffered major injuries.

Nobody in the Pontiac had been wearing seat belts, and the baby was not strapped into a car seat, the CHP reported.

Anyone with questions about child safety seats or booster seats can call Keep Babies Safe, 558-5656.

Reprinted by permission of Modesto Bee