AAA Launches Major Child Passenger Safety Initiative

    HOUSTON--March 5, 2002--AAA Texas, along with the national office of AAA, is initiating a multi-year safety campaign seeking to save more than 5,200 children's lives over the next 10 years through proper use of seat belts and car seats.
    The AAA campaign - "Seated, Safe and Secure" - is focused on reducing the leading cause of death for children aged 15 and under. It aims to change parents' behavior by educating them about how to best protect their children in vehicles, and to change laws in several states with inadequate child passenger safety regulations. The campaign is part of the national AAA's commemoration of its centennial this year.
    AAA projects that if all children were properly secured, the lives of more than 5,200 U.S. children 15 years of age and under would be saved over a 10-year period. AAA conducted an analysis based on research from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration which shows proper child restraint systems can reduce fatal injuries to infants by 71 percent, to children 1 to 4 years by 54 percent, and to those ages 5-15 by 45 percent.
    In 1999, the latest year for which statistics are published, 5,936 children aged 12 and under were killed or injured in Texas vehicle crashes because they were not restrained in either a car seat or seat belt. And nationally, more than half of youngsters age 15 and under who died in vehicle crashes were not wearing a seat belt or riding in a car seat.
    "Texas has taken a major step forward in protecting its young passengers with a new law that took effect in September, but we think that even more can be done to increase safety for children," said Rose Rougeau, spokesperson for AAA Texas. "Parents need to be aware that following the new law, and even going beyond the law's requirements, is the best way to keep their children safe in vehicles."
    Texas' new restraint law requires all child passengers under age 4 or less than 36 inches tall to ride in an approved child safety seat. Vehicle passenger safety experts from the Auto Club, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and other groups have concluded that children are safest when riding in a booster seat until the adult seat belt properly fits them. And all children age 12 and under are safest when they ride in the back seat, Rougeau added.
    AAA advises parents to ask the following questions to help them determine whether their child should ride in a booster seat:

1.  Does the child sit all the way back against the auto seat?

2.  Do the child's knees bend comfortably at the edges of the auto
    seat?

3.  Is the lap belt below the tummy, touching the thighs?

4.  Is the shoulder belt centered on the shoulder and chest?

5.  Can the child stay seated like this for the whole trip?

    If the answer to any of these questions is "no," the child should use a booster seat, Rougeau said. After children outgrow their car seats at about age 4, they should use booster seats so that the seat belt properly protects them.
    "The safest child restraint system is one that a parent will use effectively and consistently," she added. "Parents and others who transport children have the responsibility to ensure a child is restrained properly. AAA strongly encourages both seat manufacturers and automakers to work together to simplify the child seat process. In clinics held nationwide by AAA to instruct parents on proper child restraint use, misuse rates at some clinics ran as high as 90 percent."
    As part of its safety campaign, AAA will continue to host and co-sponsor clinics throughout Texas at which parents can check to make sure their child safety seats are properly installed and which also provide parent education on child passenger safety.
    In a national survey released today of AAA members, 61 percent of respondents said they were aware they could attend a car safety seat check to make sure their seat was installed properly, but only 21 percent had actually attended such an event. The national telephone survey of 1,600 AAA members has a plus or minus rate of two percent.
    As part of its education campaign, AAA today also released to TV stations a 30-second public service announcement that features Academy-Award winning actress Marlee Matlin, who is also the mother of two young children.