Bio: Liebzeit, Dustin (Saved by infant seat 1983)

Contact: Kathleen E. Englebretson

Email: kathy@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Liebzeit

----Source: Marshfield News-Herald (28 July 1983)

Dustin Liebzeit's infant seat lost the battle, but it won the war. The molded plastic infant seat was badly twisted during a June 8 automobile accident north of Owen, but Dustin escaped injury. Law enforcement officials have told Dustin's parents, Linda and Galen Liebzeit, Route 2, Greenwood, that the then 6-month old child probably would have been injured if it weren't for the protective seat.

His mother was driving him to his baby sitter's when she lost control of the car on gravel and it overturned.

"I must have been knocked out," she said. "When I came to I yelled for him. He was in the infant seat and when I pulled back the blanket, he smiled at me."

Mrs. Liebzeit, who was not wearing a seatbelt at the time of the accident, sustained back and neck injuries.

The Liebziets rented the infant seat from St. Joseph's Hospital, and were trained by hospital personnel to place the seat so it is facing toward the seat, rather than the windshield. It is held secure with a seat belt.

The hospital offers infant seats for newborns at the hospital at a cost of $10. The seats must be returned when the child reaches 9 months or 17 pounds. Parents receive $5 when they returned the seats. The goal of the program, kept alive by donations and rental fees, is to make sure each infant leaving the hospital is secured in an infant seat.

Note: Dustin was the first baby of the 1983 New Year born at St. Joseph's Hospital.