Safe Kids Announcement

June 19, 2008

PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --

Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death among children ages 3 to 14, according to NHTSA. In 2005, 1,946 children ages 14 and under died and an estimated 234,000 were injured in crashes.

Safe Kids Buckle Up, the child passenger safety program of Safe Kids USA sponsored by General Motors and Chevrolet, has reached a milestone no other program can claim: one million child safety seats checked for proper installation.

"A Safe Kids child seat inspection provides hands-on training for parents and caregivers," said Mitch Stoller, president and CEO of Safe Kids Worldwide. "At about 30 minutes per inspection, the milestone we are celebrating today represents more than 500,000 volunteer hours -- or 57 years of one person working around the clock. Our thousands of volunteers are the backbone of Safe Kids Buckle Up and they work tirelessly to help make sure the children who come to a checkup event are safer when they leave than when they arrived."

"Keeping all children safer in vehicles is one of our top priorities," said Nicole R. Nason, administrator for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. "Programs like Safe Kids Buckle Up have helped to change the culture of car seat safety in the United States and have been essential in protecting our most precious passengers."

Significant progress has been made since 1997 when the program checked its first car seat. Statistics from NHTSA show a 25 percent drop in vehicle crash fatalities for children under the age of 5 from 1997 to 2006 (the latest year with available data).

More good news has been seen in restraint use. Car seats have saved the lives of an estimated 3,800 children ages 0 to 4 from 1997 to 2006. Of the children in fatal crashes where restraint use was known, 46 percent were unrestrained in 1997. This number decreased to 25 percent in 2006.

"Safe Kids USA and General Motors have been leaders in child occupant protection," said Mark V. Rosenker, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board. "As we have said before, the Safe Kids Buckle Up program has given families across the country the peace of mind that comes with knowing how to properly secure their children in a vehicle. Checking a million seats through the Safe Kids Buckle Up program has likely resulted in hundreds of lives being saved because of the proper use of car seats and booster seats."

(Reference: http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2008/06/12/089815.html)