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Child Seat Safety Among African Americans Takes Center Stage At National Black Nurses Association Annual Conference

17 August 2000

Safety Experts Discuss Car Safety Issues in Minority Community

        

    WASHINGTON - Leaders of the National Black Nurses Association today met with 
a car safety expert from Nissan North America, Inc., to discuss the need for an 
aggressive child seat safety campaign in the African American community.

    The meeting between NBNA and Robert Yakushi, corporate manager of
engineering analysis at NNA, is part of Nissan's four-year-old public
education campaign focusing on child seat safety. The automaker's Quest for
Safety campaign, in partnership with the authors of the best selling What to
Expect(TM) series of parent books, provides information and guidelines for
ensuring that children are properly protected when riding in cars.

    Recent reports by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and
the U.S. Department of Transportation that African American youth were 50-
percent less likely to buckle up, compared to children of other racial or
ethnic backgrounds, have created public concern.

    "Research indicates that automobile accidents are one of the leading
causes of death or injury for African American children and youth, up to age
19," Yakushi said. "When children witness the driver buckling up, they are
likely to do the same thing 80 percent of the time.  That's why Nissan has
launched this important public awareness effort."

    During his presentation, Yakushi provided NBNA members with information
about how to correctly install car or booster seats based on the design of the
vehicle. Yakushi also discussed how to use rear seat shoulder or anchor
systems when installing the child seat.

    "Only 20 percent of the people who use child safety seats actually use
them correctly," Yakushi said. "Through this campaign, we hope to help parents
understand the importance of working with their car's safety features to make
it easier to correctly install the car and booster seats."

    Since the launch of Quest for Safety, Nissan has distributed more than one
million booklets to parents and caregivers nationwide. Anyone interested in
receiving a free copy of The What to Expect Guide to Car Seat Safety should
call Nissan's Quest for Safety helpline at 1-800-955-4500.  The booklet is
available in both English and Spanish, and offers simple, step-by-step
instructions for parents and answers questions parents commonly ask; from when
to switch to a front-facing seat, to what to do if a child resists buckling
up, to how long a child should stay in a booster seat.

    Nissan has invested $3 billion in the United States to establish
facilities for its design, research and development, manufacturing, sales,
consumer and corporate financing, and marketing operations.  More than sixty
percent of the Nissan trucks and cars sold in America are built in America.
Last year, Nissan purchased more than $4.2 billion in parts and materials from
U.S.-based suppliers.

    Nissan employs more than 70,000 Americans, approximately 12,000 directly
and 58,000 at 1,250 Nissan and Infiniti retailers nationwide.