Statement by U.S. Transportation Secretary Slater Commending National SAFE KIDS Campaign, GM for Promoting Child Passenger Safety

Topics:  Rodney E. Slater, General Motors

NHTSA
January 18, 2000

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NHTSA 03-00
Tuesday, January 18, 2000
Contact: NHTSA, Tim Hurd, (202) 366-9550

I wish to commend the National SAFE KIDS Campaign and General Motors as they launch a new effort to tell the American people about the importance of using child safety seats and installing them properly. Safety is President Clinton's and Vice President Gore's highest transportation priority. These new mobile car seat checkup vans will help improve highway safety by increasing the proper use of child safety seats, thus preventing highway injuries and deaths. This effort is a win for all involved - children, families and the auto industry.

Buckling up is the number one way to save lives, and that's why we want everyone to buckle up and children to be restrained in appropriate safety seats. In April 1997, President Clinton set a national goal to reduce child fatalities on our highways by 15 percent by 2000. Thanks to efforts like these checkup vans and the attentiveness of the American people, that goal is within reach this year.

I am pleased to see this innovative approach and help from the auto industry, and I applaud all our partners for their work in improving transportation safety, especially the child passenger safety technicians, volunteers and law enforcement officers throughout the country who work every day to help ensure that children are buckled up.