IMMI SafeGuard Awards California School with Lap-Shoulder Belt Equipped School Bus; IMMI Safety Belt Solutions Enabling California Schools to Meet Mandate for Lap-Shoulder Belts in School Buses

LANCASTER, Calif. & WESTFIELD, Ind.--Feb. 2, 20062, 2006--Today SafeGuard, a division of IMMI, announced the winner of its "Win a Bus" contest, awarding the Antelope Valley Union High School District in Lancaster, CA a lap-shoulder belt equipped school bus. In July 2005, California was the first state to adopt into law the mandate that all new school buses feature lap-shoulder restraints, placing a priority on safe transport for children.

School buses remain a primary mode of student transportation for transport to and from school, school sponsored events and extracurricular activities. However, the basic design of most school buses has not been updated in decades. The SafeGuard "Win a Bus" contest was developed to educate California schools on the increased child safety that the lap-shoulder belt offers.

"A lap shoulder belt will give you better protection in frontal crashes and it will also give you effective protection in side impact crashes and rollover. So, the ideal solution for the school bus, in our opinion, is compartmentalization, plus a good lap shoulder belt," said Brian O'Neill, president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

Each year, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration there are nearly 26,000 school bus accidents each year in the United States, resulting in around 10 deaths and nearly 9,500 injuries(1).

"With these seats we can provide a safer ride for the students and that's first priority," said Kenneth A. Scott, Chief Financial Officer on Assignment, Antelope Valley Union High School District. "The restraints are life-saving and the bus giveaway is a testament to SafeGuard's dedication to help schools in California, where funding is often a problem."

"There is no price we can put on the safety of our children," said Steve Wallen, President and General Manager of IMMI SafeGuard division. "Although modernizing school buses with seat belts is still a point of controversy across the nation, states are beginning to realize that proper restraints are a must-have safety feature on school buses. Through extensive testing, technology and years of experience, SafeGuard provides the industry with the leading solutions for school bus safety and comfort."

Revolutionizing Safety for School Buses

The Antelope Valley Union High School District School will be awarded a Corbeil 14 passenger "Valet." This Multi-Function School Activity Bus (MFSAB) provides the safest people carrier possible. The "Ready to Work" specifications include everything required to meet or exceed regulations while providing the appropriate level of passenger comfort.

The bus is equipped with SafeGuard bus seats, the industry's only seat that provides full compartmentalization and lap-shoulder belts. The seats are made with SafeGuard's patented SmartFrame(TM) technology that features height-and weight-appropriate restraints. The SafeGuard seat provides unsurpassed protection for belted occupants and keeps the seating compartment intact for unbuckled passengers.

Compartmentalization, a current mandate in most school buses, requires that seats are strong, closely spaced, high-backed, well-padded and designed to absorb energy during a crash. Although important to the safety of unbuckled passengers, the seats do not protect children from sudden, violent movements in a side-impact or rollover situation, a common problem with school buses due to their top-heavy design.

In addition to lap-shoulder belt equipped seats, SafeGuard also provides add-on restraints for schools and school districts to easily upgrade existing school buses. Children properly secured in both a compartmentalized and lap-shoulder harnessed seat are much more likely to avoid injury in the case of a sudden school bus movement, rollover or accident.

Testing Beyond the Standards

To ensure that the SafeGuard bus seats and child bus restraints are the most advanced ever built, SafeGuard engineers subjected them to the most rigorous and extensive testing conducted in the industry. Testing is carried out at the Center for Advanced Product Evaluation (CAPE), a state-of-the-art crash-test facility capable of imitating extreme environmental conditions and crash scenarios. The result of this research has allowed SafeGuard engineers to evaluate these safety solutions in a variety of situations that closely resemble actual school bus crash environments -- including rollover crashes -- and the differences are astounding. In a rollover crash, unrestrained children tumble through the bus like clothes in a dryer, but with the SafeGuard seat, children are protected even in these types of crashes.

Contest Requirements, Pricing and Availability

The Contest was open to all accredited private and public schools located in the State of California. The winner was randomly selected from entries submitted between February 16, 2005 and October 31, 2005.

For more information and pricing school bus restraints and safety features from IMMI, please visit http://www.safeguardseat.com/bus/index.htm.

About SafeGuard from IMMI

Through cutting-edge technology, superior testing and sophisticated design features, SafeGuard offers the most advanced protection for your child, from birth to car keys. SafeGuard's newly announced SafeGuard child seat is a revolution in car seat technology. The seat is designed to be easy-to-use to address the top five misuses of child car seats as cited by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA); while providing parents and children an all around safer seat at a greater value. In addition, its SafeGuard school bus seats and child school bus restraints are a revolution in school bus safety that exceed government regulations on safety requirements.

About IMMI

For over four decades IMMI has been bringing safety to people through designing, testing and manufacturing safety restraint systems. IMMI provides hundreds of products for various sectors including the commercial vehicle, power sports, child seating, and school bus industries. IMMI's testing and analysis facility, the Center for Advanced Product Evaluation (CAPE), located at company headquarters in Westfield, Indiana, conducts crash/rollover tests, environmental tests, and analysis services. IMMI is an international company that tests to U.S., European and Australian standards. IMMI is a privately held company and is ISO 9001-2000 certified. For more information about IMMI, please visit www.imminet.com.

(1) NHTSA, 2002 "School Bus Crashworthiness Research" by John Hinch