Clinic Helps Families Buy Child Safety Seats for Car : Traffic: The agency and CHP co-sponsor the program for low-income parents who can’t pay the average $70 to $80 price.

Carmen Gallardo cringed as she described how she and her husband could not afford the luxury of a quality car safety seat for their son, Carlos, after moving to Port Hueneme from Mexico two years ago.

The 22-year-old jobless mother, who is pregnant with her second child due any day, was forced to purchase an archaic car seat which Carlos, now 4, quickly outgrew.

Gallardo’s husband, Joel, could not afford the average $70 to $80 price tag for a more advanced, safer car seat. But now the couple’s problem may be solved.

Clinicas del Camino Real, a Latino outreach clinic that provides an array of services for low-income families, and the California Highway Patrol are co-sponsoring a child safety seat program. It will allow families like the Gallardos to purchase seats at an affordable price.

The program, fueled by a $100,000 grant from the federal Office of Traffic Safety, is the first of its kind in Ventura County to provide low-income families with safety seats, said Roberto Juarez, executive director of Clinicas.

And though the car safety seats will not be available for purchase until Aug. 1, Gallardo said she and her husband can breathe easier knowing an affordable car seat will be available.

“I just want to protect my children,” Carmen Gallardo said in Spanish. “The one I wanted to buy was over $100.”

Nearly 60 car seats will be available for $30 to $35 at Clinicas offices in Oxnard, Ojai, Fillmore and Saticoy.

The program was launched Thursday at the Clinicas’ Oxnard office by Juarez, CHP Officer Ed Beserra and Patricia Mora, state coordinator of the program.

It is part of the patrol’s El Protector program, which was started in 1987 to better educate Latinos about traffic safety and laws.

Coordinators of the El Protector program estimate that at least 3,000 seats will be distributed through 50 clinics around the state. The program has received more than $1 million in grants.

“We’re not only giving these seats at a low price, but we’re also showing these people how to use the seats and better educating them about traffic safety as well,” Mora said.

In 1992, 60 children were killed on California highways due to lack or improper use of child safety seats, Mora said, adding that 47% were Latinos.

Under the program, buyers are required to complete a one-hour traffic safety course at the clinic before obtaining their seats, Beserra said.

He said he plans to conduct a safety-seat training seminar for employees of the clinics in July.

The program is aimed not only at parents with children, but at pregnant mothers like Gallardo. It allows the pregnant women to purchase a seat or make small payments long before the child is born, Juarez said.

The $30 to $35 collected when a seat is sold will be used to buy new seats to keep the program functioning. He also said the program has yet to find a seat manufacturer to provide seats at a reduced rate, but organizers expect to complete a deal in the next week.

“We have a tremendous need for these seats in the Latino community,” Juarez said. “Hopefully, this will increase . . . child safety in the community.”