Safe travels for all
MASON CITY — Safeguarding infants and young children is never more important than when riding in a motor vehicle.
Young riders, including infants and children younger than the age of 10, have bodies that are more fragile and therefore may be more susceptible to injury in the event of an accident.
The state of Iowa requires that children between the ages of 6 and 18 ride in a booster seat installed according to the manufacturer’s instructions or be secured by an adult seat belt. Child safety seats are required for children under the age of 6.
Child safety seats should be placed in the rear seat away from the air bags, said Mason City Police Officer Jeremy Ryal, certified child passenger safety technician for the MCPD.
Seats should be rear-facing for infants and children up to the age of 2 so that the high back of the seat can protect them in the case of a crash.
Specifically, children who are a year old or younger or weigh less than 20 pounds must be secured in a rear-facing child restraint system.
Houston woman charged with starving, injuring 3-month-old
Guidry, also known as Janice Jenkins , was charged Tuesday in connection with the infant's injuries and was being held in Harris County Jail without bail. She faces charges of injury to a child and injury to a child by omission in connection with the baby. Those charges are in addition to the prior charge of injury to a child Guidry faces in the case involving the 11-year-old boy, for which she was out on bail.
In that case, Guidry allegedly told the boy to take off all of his clothes, then struck him with an extension cord on his arms, chest, back, face and hand, according to court records. When the boy tried to run, Guidry reached for him and scratched his chest, drawing blood, records show.
A 57-year-old man, Lonnie Verl Jenkins Sr., also allegedly beat the boy, using a wooden board with silver tape around it. Jenkins also was charged with injury to a child.
The boy told police he had been punished previously with a belt, belt buckle and wooden paddle.