Governor’s Office of Highway Safety

SAVING YOUNG LIVES WITH BOOSTER SEATS:

BUCKLE-UP FOR CHILD PASSENGER SAFETY

WHAT: CHILD PASSENGER SAFETY NEWS CONFERENCE..

To remind Georgia drivers that as of July 1, children will be required to be in a booster seat until 8 years of age.

WHEN: TUESDAY, JUNE 28, 2011 at 10AM

WHERE: GEORGIA STATE PATROL POST 40 ALBANY

830 Liberty Expressway, SE
Albany, GA 31705

WHY: Because car crashes are STILL the NUMBER 1 killer of our kids!

NEWS CONFERENCE SCHEDULED

For parents and caregivers, child passenger safety laws can be a jungle-gym out there!

·  “Can a twelve-year-old legally ride in the front seat?”

·  “When is a child big enough for a seatbelt?”

·  “How long should an infant ride in a rear-facing safety seat?”**

Do you know the answers? Join the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety and the Georgia State Patrol at Post 40 Albany to answer these questions and any others about the new booster seat law going into effect on July 1.

PHOTO-OP

It’s a fact! Booster and car seats maximize your young family’s protection against everything from stopping short at a traffic signal to a head-on collision. Children who do not use child passenger safety seats are three times more likely to be injured than those buckled-up in safety seats. We’ll have a certified child passenger safety seat technician from on hand to demonstrate the proper way to install a booster seat.

NEWS MEDIA INVITED

We’ll also make one-on-one interviews available with child passenger safety experts, local law enforcement and other highway safety partners.

Children who are ejected during a vehicle crash are four times more likely to be killed by injuries after the ejection or by the vehicle rolling over them. Research shows that child safety seats, when used correctly, can reduce the chances of a fatal injury by 71-percent for infants and 54-percent for toddlers in passenger vehicles. Unfortunately, research shows nearly 3-out-of-4 child safety seats are not installed properly. And with the new booster seat law going into effect soon, all parents and caregivers need to make sure they understand the new rules.

For details on child safety seat check events and inspection stations in your community, visit our website at www.gahighwaysafety.org or go to www.nhtsa.gov/carseatcheck .

**Find the answers to these questions in our GOHS Child Passenger Safety Seat news release.

Governor’s Office of Highway Safety

7 Martin Luther King Jr Dr SE—Suite 643—Atlanta, Georgia 30334

Visit us on the web at www.gahighwaysafety.org

Nathan Deal, Governor Harris Blackwood, Director