AAA and Hertz Announce Campaign to Help Keep Vacationing Children in Car and Booster Seats

WASHINGTON, July 1 -- AAA, America's leading advocate for child passenger safety, and Hertz, the world's largest car rental company, have joined forces to help keep America's youngest passengers safe and secure while traveling.

The campaign, called "Don't Take a Vacation from Your Car Seat," is a first-ever, combined effort to build awareness that parents must put their children in child safety seats and booster seats when they rent a vehicle. Child seats saved 392 lives in 2006 and AAA has been advocating for state laws that increase their usage for more than 20 years.

Regardless of where you travel in the U.S. there are state laws requiring the use of child safety seats. While laws vary from state to state regarding booster seat usage, AAA urges travelers to keep children in car and booster seats until the lap/shoulder safety belts fit them properly, usually around age eight.

"Family travelers want and need to protect their children when they ride in a rented automobile," said Mark H. Brown, Executive Vice President of AAA. He noted a recent AAA-Hertz survey found that 95 percent of parents who travel with a child six years of age or younger reported that their child needed to be in a child safety or booster seat. "Hertz and AAA want to make it easier for parents who may worry about the inconvenience of bringing a child safety seat while travelling."

Renting a safety seat has become increasingly simple because travelers can now reserve a seat when they book through their travel agent or online at www.AAA.com/hertz and www.hertz.com. According to the Hertz/AAA survey of parents who travel with young children, of those travelers who rent a child safety seat at their location, 81 percent say they book their seat at the time of reservation.

"The safety of all our customers, including young travelers, is of paramount concern to Hertz," commented Joseph R. Nothwang, President of North America and Pacific Rent A Car for Hertz. "Hertz has been aggressively reengineering itself to be more customer centric and we're pleased to work with AAA to make the use of safety seats while traveling more convenient and less expensive for our customers."

Hertz is AAA's exclusive national car rental partner, and this summer AAA members need only provide the agent with their membership card and they can rent up to two complimentary child safety or booster seats from Hertz.

In addition to the free child safety seats, Hertz and AAA will also be posting more than 3,000 "Don't Take a Vacation from Your Car Seat" posters in AAA's 1,100 travel agency locations and 2,000 Hertz locations in the U.S. and Canada.