---

Endorsement for Enforcement: Ford Stands Up for Children's Rights

23 November 1998

Endorsement for Enforcement: Ford Stands Up for Children's Rights

    WASHINGTON, Nov. 20 -- Ford Motor Company is fully committed
to the national campaign this Thanksgiving holiday to protect children by
stepping up enforcement of child passenger safety laws.
    More than 5,000 law enforcement agencies across the country will conduct
the second 1998 wave of Operation ABC Mobilization: America Buckles Up
Children. This will be the largest ever crackdown on drivers who do not buckle
up children. Ford joins the more than 1,000 organizations nationwide that
endorse this intensive, 50-state lifesaving effort.
    "Although only law enforcement officers can write the tickets, Ford stands
firmly behind the lifesaving message each ticket delivers," said Jac Nasser,
Ford Motor Company CEO-elect. "Ford is not just a manufacturer of cars. We are
also parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins who want to protect our
children. The Operation ABC Mobilization is the kind of broad-based community
movement our country needs to help save both children's lives and the adults
who take care of them."
    While officers and safety advocates have been educating drivers about the
benefits of child safety seats and seat belts for years, the Operation ABC
Mobilization takes the next step. It is a serious educational effort directed
at drivers who place children at deadly risk by leaving them completely
unrestrained.
    The Thanksgiving Operation ABC Mobilization is based on an extremely
successful Mobilization last Memorial Day. The National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration's observational surveys before and after that Memorial Day
Mobilization showed that six million more people had buckled up. Additional
surveys by the National Safety Council showed a 35 percent drop in fatalities
during that Memorial Day weekend.
    "The impact of the last Operation ABC Mobilization clearly illustrates
that high visibility enforcement works," said Nasser. "This is why Ford is
giving its official 'Endorsement for Enforcement.'  We hope the Mobilization's
success will be expanded this Thanksgiving and will save even more lives. The
message is clear: the law requires that children be buckled up at all times.
No exceptions. No excuses."