Arissa Viering | 7/9/2020 | Goodday Mineral Wells | The Wishing Well of Mineral Wells
When the Ashley family needed help, DPS state trooper, Sergeant Hunter, did not hesitate to lend assistance.
The Ashley family is expecting their second child in three weeks. As a mother of a three-year-old, student, wife, and educator, Michaine Ashley keeps pretty busy.
The high school chemistry teacher works at a virtual charter school and is also currently working on her doctoral dissertation through Abilene Christian University. She is scheduled for her c-section at the end of July and has been working hard to prepare for her delivery. However, there was one problem: she was having great difficulty with installing a new car seat and base in her vehicle.
With the previous car seat used for their first son, the Ashley family encountered a few difficulties. Their first son would often wake up as a newborn when they put him in and took him out of the vehicle.
“We used one of the big, roll-over, safety-tested car seats. It has a whole different set-up.”
With their second child, they did not want to have the same scenario and decided to purchase a different model of car seat.
After purchasing an infant car seat carrier with a base, the Ashley family attempted to install the seat several times. Unfortunately, they were unable to install the car seat and base due to the shape, angle, and depth of the seats within their GMC Terrain. After watching several videos online and reading the full instruction manual, Mrs. Ashley began to reach out to different police and fire departments in Graham, TX, for help.
However, Mrs. Ashley found that “nobody in Graham was certified to install car seats.”
After contacting her sister, a communications officer in Midland, TX, she was able to locate a DPS State Trooper from Mineral Wells, Sergeant Hunter, who was certified in installing car seats. Due to travel restrictions within the last month of her pregnancy, Mrs. Ashley was unable to make the drive to Mineral Wells. However, this did not stop Sergeant Hunter from helping the Ashley family.
“Sergeant Hunter said ‘no problem at all. I’ll meet you in Graham. Tell me where you want to meet.’ He literally drove an hour out of his way, all the way to Graham, to meet with us.”
Sergeant Hunter showed the Ashley family how to properly install the infant car seat and base. He provided reassuring answers to their questions and even provided different tips and insights:
- Do not use the safety clamps and the seat belt together to restrain the car seat base. This places too much strain on the car seat and can cause parts to break even when not in a wreck.
- The number sixty-five is very important: You can no longer use the seat clamps to restrain the car seat after the child weighs sixty-five pounds.
“This was one more thing we were able to check off the list and, now, we have the car seat installed safely. We won’t have to worry about waiting on that at the hospital just before driving an hour home after a c-section.”
After her experience, Mrs. Ashley would like to encourage other families, even with older children, who are using car seats to reach out to law enforcement officers who are certified in installing car seats.
Relieved that the car seat was finally able to be installed, Mrs. Ashley is able to continue preparing for her second child.
“We really appreciate Sergeant Hunter for going above and beyond his duty by driving an hour away to see us. It really shows the hard work and dedication from our local DPS office from our local community.”
Former Co-Founder | June 2020-Nov 2020 | Graduate of Texas Christian University with a background in medical anthropology, psychology, and creative writing. Passionate about writing novels. Loved the Mineral Wells community and all that it had offered her and her family.
