DOT Launches ‘Choose the Right Seat’ for Children in Cars

AutoInformed.com on Child Safety Seats

NHTSA NHTSA is also launching “Parents Central,” a website with tools and resources for keeping children safe in and around cars.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood today announced the launch of new public service announcements  designed to raise awareness about the importance of choosing the right child safety seat and making sure it is installed properly.The ads, released in partnership with the Ad Council, promote car seat safety among parents of children up to age 12. Data from the Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) show an estimated 8,959 lives were saved by child restraint systems from 1975 to 2008.

Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for children ages one through 12 years old. From 2006 to 2010, 4,028 children aged 12 and younger were killed in crashes involving passenger vehicles. Another estimated 660,000 children were injured in crashes – a figure greater than the entire population of Boston, Massachusetts.

Working with the Ad Council as part of an ongoing campaign to ensure generic celebrex child car safety, NHTSA unveiled new Public Service Announcements this morning that will air on television, radio, online and in outdoor advertising nationwide. “The Right Seat” effort aims to make sure all parents and caregivers are properly securing children ages 12 and under in the right car restraint (rear-facing, forward-facing, booster, seat belt) for their age and size. Targeting parents and caregivers who already use car seats, the key message of the PSAs is to remind parents to “make sure their child is in the right car seat.”

The English-language PSAs were created pro bono by advertising agency Gotham, Inc. The PSAs will air in advertising time that will be entirely donated by the media and will be distributed to more than 33,000 media outlets in the United States. Spanish-language PSAs on child seat safety will be released in early May 2012.

Coinciding with the release of the new PSAs, NHTSA is also launching “Parents Central,” a new one-stop-shop website with tools and resources for keeping children safe in and around cars.

About Ken Zino

Ken Zino, editor and publisher of AutoInformed, is a versatile auto industry participant with global experience spanning decades in print and broadcast journalism, as well as social media. He has automobile testing, marketing, public relations and communications experience. He is past president of The International Motor Press Assn, the Detroit Press Club, founding member and first President of the Automotive Press Assn. He is a member of APA, IMPA and the Midwest Automotive Press Assn. He also brings an historical perspective while citing their contemporary relevance of the work of legendary auto writers such as Ken Purdy, Jim Dunne or Jerry Flint, or writers such as Red Smith, Mark Twain, Thomas Jefferson – all to bring perspective to a chaotic automotive universe. Above all, decades after he first drove a car, Zino still revels in the sound of the exhaust as the throttle is blipped during a downshift and the driver’s rush that occurs when the entry, apex and exit points of a turn are smoothly and swiftly crossed. It’s the beginning of a perfect lap. AutoInformed has an editorial philosophy that loves transportation machines of all kinds while promoting critical thinking about the future use of cars and trucks. Zino builds AutoInformed from his background in automotive journalism starting at Hearst Publishing in New York City on Motor and MotorTech Magazines and car testing where he reviewed hundreds of vehicles in his decade-long stint as the Detroit Bureau Chief of Road & Track magazine. Zino has also worked in Europe, and Asia – now the largest automotive market in the world with China at its center.
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