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Automotive Occupant Restraints Council Supports Effort To Protect Children

18 May 1999

Automotive Occupant Restraints Council Supports Effort To Protect Child Motor Vehicle Passengers

    LEXINGTON, Ky., May 17 -- The Automotive Occupant Restraints
Council (AORC) today announced its support of a national effort this Memorial
Day week to protect children by stepping up enforcement of child passenger
safety laws.  Thousands of law enforcement agencies across the nation are
conducting the Operation ABC Mobilization: America Buckles Up Children -- the
enforcement effort on drivers who don't buckle up children.  The Council joins
with its members nationwide to endorse the intensive 50-state lifesaving
initiative.
    "Although only law enforcement officers can write tickets, we stand firmly
behind the lifesaving message each ticket delivers," said George Kirchoff,
AORC president.  "The Council and its 45 member companies are not only
employers, we're parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles who want to protect our
children."
    AORC is a non-profit organization representing domestic and foreign
manufacturers and suppliers of automotive air bags, safety belts, seating
systems and their components.
    "AORC has a long standing active commitment to increasing safety belt use
nationally," said Kirchoff.  "The data show that states with primary belt use
laws benefit from significantly increased belt use and that translates to
lives saved and injuries reduced."
    A survey recently completed by the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration (NHTSA) found that 19 million more Americans buckled up in
1998.  If these millions of people continue to use safety belts, an estimated
1,500 lives will be saved.
    "AORC and its member companies urge zero tolerance for unbuckled children
and hope officers can expand the last Mobilization's success to save even more
lives.  This will send a clear message to America:  The law requires children
to be buckled up at all times.  No exceptions.  No excuses," Kirchoff said.
    Officers will be enforcing adult belt laws during the Operation ABC
Mobilization.  A recent study in the journal of the American Academy of
Pediatrics found, "Driver restraint use was the strongest predictor of child
restraint use ... a restrained driver was three times more likely to restrain
a child."  And, according to surveys by the NHTSA, when a driver buckles up,
children are buckled up 87 percent of the time.  However, when a driver is
unbuckled, child restraint use drops to only 24 percent.
    As part of their enforcement activities throughout the Operation ABC
Mobilization, officers will distribute information on air bag safety and the
importance of making sure children 12 years old and younger ride properly
buckled in the back seat.

                      CHILD PASSENGER SAFETY FACT SHEET

    *  Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for all children.
In 1997, motor vehicle crashes took the lives of 2,087 child occupants ages 0
to 15 and injured nearly 320,000 more.
    *  Every day, an average of seven children ages 14 and under die and
another 908 are injured in motor vehicle related crashes.
    *  In 1997, six of every ten children who died in crashes were unbelted.
Tragically, nearly half of these children would be alive today if only they
had been properly restrained.
    *  Child safety seats, when properly installed, reduce the risk of death
by 69 percent for infants and 47 percent for toddlers.
    *  Of the children under age five who died in motor vehicle crashes in
1997, more than half were completely unrestrained.  Of those who were
restrained, 29 percent were not in age and size appropriate safety seats, but
rather buckled in an adult seat belt.
    *  Restraint use decreases significantly after an infant outgrows its
child safety seat.  While restraint use for infants is 85 percent, restraint
use for children 5-15 decreases to 64 percent.
    *  According to a recent survey of parents who have infants under one year
of age, those who do not always buckle up are 50 percent more likely to
improperly restrain infants in the front seat.
    *  There are one third fewer fatalities to children who ride in the back
seat.  The best way to protect children from crash-related injuries as well as
from risks that air bags may pose, is to properly restrain children ages 12
and under in the back seat.

    INFORMATION SOURCE:
    The Airbag and Seat Belt Safety Campaign, Washington, D.C.