"It made all the difference in our lives," Scott later wrote in a thank-you letter to the CHP. "It's because of their dedication to their community, commitment to their jobs and diligence in performing their work that my kids walked away from the accident uninjured."

 The CHP will hold a similar safety fair in Ontario next month. Officer Cortinas said that technicians at the CHP offices in Barstow and Victorville are also available by appointment during office hours to perform individual checks on child safety seats.

"If the car seat is defective, we swap them out and that's what we did in this case," Cortinas said from CHP headquarters Tuesday, where he met with Scott to receive thanks from the family.  "I'm glad it worked out, because that's the purpose of this program," Cortinas added.

 Scott wanted to go out of her way to thank the officers involved for their tenacity and kindness in replacing the seat before the accident, and because she never planned on having the seat inspected.

 The Scott family originally went to the Kids Matter Fair with the purpose of getting 5-year-old son Owen current on his immunizations to enter kindergarten. Although they enjoyed several other events, as well as free cotton candy and snow cones, they were about to leave when Wendi ran into friend Dan Barbour, pastor at High Desert Church.  "I was tired from being out with the kids in the sun for the past two hours and was ready to go home. But reluctantly, at Pastor Dan's urging, we drove around to the side of the building where the officers were inspecting the seats," Scott explained.  That is when she met Officer Cortinas, who has been a trained child safety seat technician since 2000 and visits up to a dozen safety fairs a year.  "We inspect the seat for fit, and match it to a recall list to see if its been recalled. I noticed several things that were defective; the straps weren't flat and I couldn't make them flat. With key things wrong, I thought it would be safer if I refit him with a new seat," he said.