National Safety Day Focuses on Kids in Cars

    BLOOMINGTON, Ill., May 7 Eighty-three percent of children
between the ages of 4 and 8 are incorrectly restrained in adult seat belts.
    This is one of the findings from an ongoing six-year study called
"Partners for Child Passenger Safety" (PCPS), the first comprehensive
investigation of how and why children are killed or injured in vehicle
crashes.
    
    The partnership, which involves The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia,
State Farm Insurance Companies and the University of Pennsylvania, also found
that 82 percent of child car seats are misused in some way.

    To help spread the word of child passenger safety and how parents and
guardians can better protect their children, State Farm is sponsoring the
first State Farm Child Safety Day Saturday, May 12.

    In more than 200 locations across the United States, thousands of State
Farm associates and members of the community will be hosting free child safety
seat checkpoints.

    "Over these last four years, we've learned a lot from research that looked
into our data on auto accidents that hurt children," said John Coffey, senior
vice president, State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company.  "Now we need
to share information about how people can do a better job of protecting their
children and grandchildren.  We hope this Child Safety Day can turn research
into action."

    The Safety Day comes on the heels of the third interim report issued by
the partnership.

    "Thirty-six percent of children who were fatally injured in crashes in
1999 were, in fact, restrained.  Parents believe they are correctly
restraining their children -- but our study shows that many are not," said
Dr. Flaura Winston of The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, principal
investigator for PCPS.  "State Farm's Child Safety Day is an excellent
opportunity for parents to put their minds at ease by having a trained
technician check their children's car and booster seats and provide
potentially lifesaving information."