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Lincoln Mercury Supports Expanded National Crackdown

23 November 1998

Lincoln Mercury Supports Expanded National Crackdown on Drivers Who Don't Buckle Up Children

             Lincoln Mercury Joins Over 1,000 Groups Giving Their
                        'Endorsement for Enforcement'

    IRVINE, Calif., Nov. 20 -- California-based Lincoln Mercury
today announced its official support of a national mobilization this
Thanksgiving holiday to protect children by stepping up enforcement of child
passenger safety laws.
    More than 5,000 law enforcement agencies across the nation are conducting
the second 1998 wave of the Operation ABC Mobilization: America Buckles Up
Children  --  the largest ever coordinated crackdown on drivers who don't
buckle up children.  Lincoln Mercury joins Ford Motor Company and
over 1,000 other organizations nationwide that endorse the intensive, 50-state
lifesaving enforcement effort.
    "Tens of thousands of law enforcement officers in all 50 states will be
out in force protecting children from the greatest danger they face  --  being
unrestrained in a crash," said Janet Dewey, executive director of the Air Bag
& Seat Belt Safety Campaign, sponsor of the Operation ABC Mobilization.  "We
know these officers are energized by the ground swell of support from
organizations across the country like Lincoln Mercury."
    "Although only law enforcement officers can write the tickets, we stand
firmly behind the lifesaving message each ticket delivers," said Mark
Hutchins, president of Lincoln Mercury.  "The Operation ABC Mobilization is
the kind of broad community-based movement our nation needs to save children's
lives."
    The Thanksgiving Operation ABC Mobilization comes on the heels of an
extremely successful Mobilization last Memorial Day.  The National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration's observational surveys before and after the
last May Mobilization showed six million more people buckling up.  This
translates into an estimated 670 lives saved each year if these people
continue to use their seat belts.  In addition, a survey by the National
Safety Council showed fatalities went down by more than 35 percent during the
Mobilization / Memorial Day period.
    "The impact of the last Operation ABC Mobilization clearly illustrates
that high-visibility enforcement works," said Hutchins.  "That is why Lincoln
Mercury gives its official Endorsement for Enforcement.  We hope officers can
expand the Mobilization's success and, once again, save lives with a clear
message to America:  The law requires that children be buckled up at all
times.  No exceptions.  No excuses."
    Studies consistently show that the best way to get children buckled up is
to get adults buckled up.  According to observational data, when a driver
buckles up, children are buckled up 87 percent of the time; however, when a
driver is unbuckled, child belt use drops to only 24 percent.  A recent study
by the University of California, Irvine, reported in the journal Pediatrics
found, "Driver restraint use was the strongest predictor of child restraint
use ... a restrained driver was three times more likely to restrain a child."
That is why, increasingly, officers are strengthening enforcement of adult
belt laws during the Operation ABC Mobilization.
    A survey of parents who have infants shows that the lack of adult belt use
particularly endangers babies: parents who don't buckle up are more likely to
improperly place babies in the front seat, leaving them at serious risk of
being injured or killed by an air bag.  According to investigations, almost
all of the children who have died from air bag related injuries were
completely unrestrained, improperly restrained or were infants riding in a
rear-facing infant seat.

    Operation ABC Mobilization, organized by the Air Bag & Seat Belt Safety
Campaign in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Transportation and the
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, is part of the Buckle Up
America Campaign  --  an ongoing national safety initiative to increase seat
belt use and save the lives of Americans.  The Mobilization is supported by
the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the National Sheriffs
Association, Operation CARE and the National Organization of Black Law
Enforcement Executives.