Nation's Law Enforcement Declares Zero Tolerance For Unbuckled Children in all 50 States
24 May 1999
Nation's Law Enforcement Declares Zero Tolerance For Unbuckled Children in all 50 States U.S. Department of Transportation, National Transportation Safety Board and
43 Governors Throughout the Nation Announce Their Commitment to Zero Tolerance
WASHINGTON, May 24 -- As the next wave of the Operation ABC
Mobilization: America Buckles Up Children begins, government officials,
elected leaders, business and community organizations, 6,000 law enforcement
agencies announce zero tolerance for drivers who fail to restrain children:
Drivers who break the law will be stopped and enforcement action taken.
Scheduled from May 24 - May 31, this is the fourth nationwide crackdown in
just two years because, organizers say, repetition is the key to their
success.
The call for zero tolerance for unbuckled children comes as the U.S.
Department of Transportation released new data today indicating that as the
first three Mobilizations were conducted over the past two years, child
restraint use rose dramatically. One of the most significant findings is that
restraint use for children ages 1 through 4 jumped from 60 percent to 87
percent from 1996 to 1998.
"The last three Mobilization campaigns have demonstrated that intense,
visible, enforcement helps increase seat belt and child safety seat use," U.S.
Transportation Secretary Rodney E. Slater said. "Public-private partnerships
like these also will help us reach the President's goals to reduce child
fatalities -- an important part of safety, President Clinton's highest
transportation priority."
The Mobilization was launched today at the Children's National Medical
Center to focus attention on the nearly 1,000 children who are injured in car
crashes every day. If all of America's children were restrained all the time,
500 children each day would be spared serious injury. Traffic crashes are the
leading cause of death and injury to children in the United States. This
decade, more than 60,000 children, infants to teenagers, have died in traffic
crashes. Although it's illegal in all 50 states for children to ride in a
vehicle unbuckled, six out of ten children killed in automobile crashes are
completely unrestrained. If the drivers had followed the law, nearly half of
those children would be alive today.
"Because adults are breaking the law, children are being needlessly
crippled and killed every day," said Jim Hall, Chairman of the National
Transportation Safety Board. "There should be zero tolerance for drivers with
unbuckled kids in every state, every day of the year. The increase in child
restraint use in the last two years reflects the importance of enforcing the
laws."
Across the nation, support for zero tolerance for unbuckled kids is
growing. More than 43 governors have issued resolutions stating, "I support
making child passenger safety a priority in my state through highly visible
enforcement and the adoption of a policy of zero tolerance for unbuckled kids.
Drivers who allow children to ride unrestrained should be stopped and
enforcement action taken." The chiefs of each state patrol in all 50 states,
through the International Association of Chiefs of Police, Division of State
and Provincial Police, have passed a resolution that "supports the adoption in
each state of a policy of zero tolerance for unbuckled children."
The Mobilization is sponsored by the Air Bag & Seat Belt Safety Campaign,
a program of the National Safety Council, in cooperation with the National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). In addition, showing a broad
spectrum of citizen support, more than 1,000 businesses and community
organizations, from the American Hospital Association and National SAFE KIDS
Campaign to the American Academy of Pediatrics have issued formal
"endorsements for enforcement" that call for zero tolerance.
"It takes more than just law enforcement to create the societal shift that
dictates that no child ride unbuckled," said NHTSA Administrator Ricardo
Martinez, M.D. "It takes all of us, business and community leaders, health
professionals, safety activists and government agencies to say, 'No more,' we
as a nation have zero tolerance for unbuckled children."
The members of the Deck family from Lincoln, Neb. have become staunch seat
belt advocates since a crash involving the family's five children. Three of
the children were unrestrained, and they each were seriously injured -- one
almost died. One of the 9-year-old twins had a slashed throat, punctured
larynx and needed a tracheotomy. The other twin had a broken collarbone and a
deep scalp laceration, and the 14-year-old daughter suffered a ruptured spleen
and fractured collarbone. The two who were wearing their seat belts were
unharmed.
Christina Deck, the oldest child and driver of the vehicle said, "Our
whole family learned the value of seat belts the hard way. Believe me, a
ticket would have been a far smaller price to pay compared to the pain our
family suffered as a result of not buckling up."
Tens of thousands of officers from all 50 states are stepping up
enforcement by conducting child safety checkpoints, saturation patrols, and
looking for violations of child passenger safety laws and seat belt laws
during regular patrols. Officers also will be stepping up enforcement of
adult seat belt laws, because research shows that most adults who don't buckle
up themselves, don't buckle up kids. Recent research finds that a buckled
driver is three times more likely to restrain a child passenger.
"Officers are encouraged by the tremendous support we're seeing for zero
tolerance around the nation," said Assistant Chief Terry Gainer of the D.C.
Metropolitan Police Department and representing the International Association
of Chiefs of Police. "There is no excuse for an unbuckled child and zero
tolerance will make a difference."
The Operation ABC Mobilization, sponsored by the Air Bag & Seat Belt
Safety Campaign in cooperation with the U.S. DOT and NHTSA, is part of the
Buckle Up America Campaign, which is an ongoing national safety initiative to
increase seat belt use and save the lives of Americans. The effort is
supported by the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the National
Sheriffs Association, Operation CARE, the National Organization of Black Law
Enforcement Executives and more than 1,000 businesses and community
organizations.
