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Citizens Can Join Efforts to Protect Children

22 May 2000

Citizens Can Join Efforts to Protect Children as Law Enforcement Launches National Crackdown on Drivers Who Don't Buckle Up Kids

      National Safety Council Lends Support with Citizen Action Hotline

    WASHINGTON, May 22 More than 8,000 law enforcement
agencies are launching the Memorial Day national enforcement blitz on deadbeat
drivers -- adults who disregard the law and don't buckle up children --
starting today and continuing through the holiday weekend.  To support the
Operation ABC Mobilization, the National Safety Council is providing a
national toll-free number during the week as a way for citizens to help
protect a child they see riding unbuckled.
    "People tell us all the time how frustrated and powerless they feel when
they see an unbuckled child riding in a car," said Gerard F. Scannell,
President of the National Safety Council.  "This week by calling the Council's
toll-free hotline, there is something they can do to help children in danger."
    While officers in all 50 states intensify enforcement of child passenger
safety laws through checkpoints and saturation patrols, citizens who see an
unbuckled child in a vehicle can dial 1-800-764-5755 and leave a message about
the vehicle, or they can leave the name and address of someone who routinely
allows their child passengers to ride unbuckled.  The National Safety Council
will send a letter reminding that it's extremely dangerous for a child to ride
unbuckled; and because there are laws in all 50 states requiring children that
ride restrained, you could be stopped and ticketed if you're failing to
protect them.
    The last three years of Operation ABC Mobilizations have significantly
contributed to an increase in child restraint use and a decline in child
fatalities.  But there is still more work to do.  While more than 90 percent
of infants and children ages one to four ride restrained, one out of three
children ages 5 to 15 ride unbuckled.  Today 15 million children are at deadly
risk.  Traffic crashes are the number one killer of children ages 5 to 14, and
60 percent of the kids killed in crashes are unrestrained.  Half of those who
die unbuckled in crashes would be alive today if the driver had made sure they
were restrained.
    "Seat belts and child safety seats are the greatest protection in the
event of a crash, and parents should buckle up their children in the back seat
on absolutely every trip," said U.S. Transportation Secretary Rodney E.
Slater.