Child Safety Advocates and Victims Join Senators Clinton and Sununu to Urge Passage of Bill to Protect Children in and Around Cars

Victims Speak Out on Eve of Senate Hearing

WASHINGTON, Feb. 26-- The following advisory was issued today by KIDS AND CARS:

  WHO:       -- Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY)
             -- Senator John Sununu (R-NH)
             -- Janette Fennell, President, KIDS AND CARS
             -- Jackie Gillan, Vice President, Advocates for Highway and
                Auto Safety
             -- Sally Greenberg, Senior Counsel, Consumers Union

             Families of eight children killed or injured in recent non-
             traffic incidents:
             -- Sue Auriemma, Long Island, NY
             -- Packy Campbell, Farmington, NH
             -- Rachel Clemens, Garland, TX
             -- Britt Gates, Anthony, KS
             -- Angela and Tim Gridley, Cedartown, GA
             -- Christine Isakson, Waterford, VA
             -- Julie and Smith Peck, Marietta, GA
             -- Arden Rosenfeld, Boca Raton, FL

  WHAT:      Call upon Congress to immediately pass the Cameron Gulbransen
             KIDS AND CARS Safety Act of 2007 and release new data on non-
             traffic child fatality trends.

  WHEN:      Tuesday, February 27, 2007, 2:15 p.m.

  WHERE:     Dirksen Senate Office Building, Room 342

BACKGROUND: Since 2000, over 1,000 children have died in non-traffic incidents. The legislation sponsored by Senators Clinton and Sununu addresses vehicles and child safety problems, such as children being backed over, strangled by power windows or killed when they or someone else inadvertently knocks a vehicle into motion. The bill directs the U.S. Secretary of Transportation to issue regulations to decrease the incidence of child injury and death:

  -- Ensure power windows automatically reverse direction when they detect
     an obstruction to prevent children from being trapped, injured or
     killed;
  -- Provide drivers with a means of detecting the presence of a person or
     object behind their vehicle;
  -- Provide for the vehicle service brake to be engaged to prevent vehicles
     from unintentionally rolling away; and
  -- Establish a child safety information program to collect non-traffic
     incident data and disseminate information to parents about these
     hazards and ways to mitigate them.

A companion bill will be introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Representative Peter King (R-NY) and Representative Janice Schakowsky (D- IL).