Fitzgerald Calls for Mandatory Booster Seat Laws

           Bill Would Ensure More Children are Adequately Protected
                          In Motor Vehicle Crashes;
 Measure is 'Next Step' in Senator's Effort to Improve Child Passenger Safety

    CHICAGO, July 5 Continuing his drive to improve child
passenger safety, U.S. Senator Peter G. Fitzgerald (R-Illinois) held a news
conference today to discuss legislation he has introduced to encourage states
to adopt mandatory booster seat laws, and thereby help reduce the number of
traffic fatalities and injuries to young children.  The bill represents the
next step in the senator's efforts to limit the number of deaths and serious
injuries to children in car crashes.
    Designed specifically to help standard adult seatbelts fit children
better, booster seats are used to protect children who have outgrown their car
seats but are still too small to fit properly in an adult-sized safety belt.
They work to help reduce the risk of what experts call "lap belt syndrome" --
instances in which improperly-fitting seatbelts themselves actually cause
serious injury to children in car crashes instead of protecting them.  In some
crashes, for example, the shoulder belt that cuts across a child's neck --
instead of her torso -- and the lab belt that rides high on her abdomen cause
severe internal injuries to her liver, spleen, intestines, and spinal cord,
Fitzgerald said.
    "We know booster seats save lives, yet the overwhelming majority of states
do not require them," Fitzgerald noted.  "Only four states -- Arkansas,
California, Washington, and South Carolina -- have adopted mandatory booster
seat laws, and recent attempts to pass meaningful legislation in other states,
including my home state of Illinois, have failed," the senator continued.
    "Senator Fitzgerald's efforts to codify best practice coast to coast
epitomizes the best of our American sense of responsibility to our community
-- parents and children alike," commented Autumn Skeen.
    Ms. Skeen, a child safety passenger safety advocate living in Washington
state, joined Fitzgerald to endorse the legislation.  She lost her four-year-
old son, Anton, in a car crash and has helped secure passage of Washington's
booster seat law -- called "Anton's Law."  According to Ms. Skeen, Anton may
have been saved had he been riding in a booster seat.

    Fitzgerald's legislation would do the following:

    * Encourage State Action by providing states with financial incentives to
      adopt mandatory booster seat laws by 2003.

    * Modernize Auto Safety by requiring automakers to install three-point lap
      and shoulder belts in the center rear seat.

    * Improve Testing by expanding booster seat testing to cover kids over 50
      lbs.

    * Promote Safety Education by extending a federal grant program for states
      to promote child passenger safety and education.

    "The alarmingly low rate of booster seat use is a major problem in this
country and a serious public health threat.  We must take steps now to help
encourage safer car rides for our children," the senator concluded.
    Last year, Fitzgerald authored legislation to modernize the government's
outdated testing methods for child safety seats, expand efforts to protect
children in various types of collisions, and close the "child safety gap" that
leaves older children unprotected.  The law, which passed as part of a broader
road safety package, also called for new federal regulations to ensure greater
protection against head injuries in side-impact collisions, and instructed the
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the federal agency
responsible for testing child safety seats, to provide parents with accurate,
easy-to-understand information they can use to decide which car seat or
booster seat is best for their child.
    Also participating in Fitzgerald's news conference were a panel of medical
and child passenger safety experts, including Dr. John F. Sarwark, Division of
Orthopedic Surgery, The Children's Memorial Hospital; Ms. Judith Lee Stone,
President, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety; and Dr. Kyran Quinlan,
Department of Pediatrics, University of Chicago (speaking on behalf of the
National Safe Kids Campaign).