II

105TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 1312

To save lives and prevent injuries to children in motor vehicles through

an improved national, State, and local child protection program.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

OCTOBER 23, 1997

Mr. ABRAHAM introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred

to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation

A BILL

To save lives and prevent injuries to children in motor vehicles through an improved national, State, and local child

protection program.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Child Passenger Pro5 tection Act’’.

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

7 Congress finds the following:

8 (1) The annual losses in the United States from

9 motor vehicle collisions are estimated to exceed 800
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1 deaths and 80,000 injuries to children under the age

2 of 5.

3 (2) It is estimated that properly used child re4 straints in motor vehicles can reduce the chance of

5 serious or fatal injury in a motor vehicle collision—

6 (A) by a factor of 69 percent with respect

7 to infants; and

8 (B) by a factor of 47 percent with respect

9 to children under the age of 5.

10 (3) Some of the most common seating position

11 designs that have emerged in motor vehicles during

12 the last decade make secure installation of child re13 straints difficult and, in some circumstances, impos14 sible.

15 (4) Results from regional child restraint clinics

16 demonstrated that 70 to 90 percent of child re17 straints are improperly installed or otherwise mis18 used and the improper installation or other misuse

19 is largely attributable to the complication and wide

20 variations in seat belt and child restraint designs.

21 (5) There is an immediate need to expand the

22 availability of national, State, and local child re23 straint education programs and supporting resources

24 and materials to assist agencies and associated orga-
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1 nizations in carrying out effective public education

2 concerning child restraints.

3 SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

4 In this Act:

5 (1) CHILD RESTRAINT EDUCATION PROGRAM.—

6 The term ‘‘child restraint education program’’ in7 cludes a publication, audiovisual presentation, dem8 onstration, or computerized child restraint education

9 program.

10 (2) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means

11 the Secretary of Transportation.

12 (3) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means any

13 State of the United States, the District of Columbia,

14 the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the United

15 States Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, the

16 Northern Mariana Islands, and any other territory

17 or possession of the United States.

18 SEC. 4. CHILD PASSENGER EDUCATION.

19 (a) AWARDS.—The Secretary may enter into con20 tracts or cooperative agreements with, and may make

21 grants to, State highway agencies and child passenger

22 safety organizations that are recognized for their experi23 ence to obtain and distribute national, State, and local

24 child restraint education programs and supporting edu25 cational materials.
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1 (b) USE OF FUNDS.—Funds provided to an agency

2 or organization under a contract, cooperative agreement,

3 or grant under subsection (a) shall be used to implement

4 child restraint programs that—

5 (1) are designed to prevent deaths and injuries

6 to children under the age of 5; and

7 (2) educate the public concerning—

8 (A) all aspects of the proper installation of

9 child restraints using standard seatbelt hard10 ware, supplemental hardware and modification

11 devices (if needed), including special installation

12 techniques; and

13 (B) appropriate child restraint design se14 lection and placement and in harness threading

15 and harness adjustment; and

16 (3) train and retrain child passenger safety pro17 fessionals, police officers, fire and emergency medi18 cal personnel, and other educators concerning all as19 pects of child restraint use.

20 (c) DISTRIBUTION OF FUNDS.—An agency or organi21 zation that receives funds made available to the agency

22 or organization under a contract, cooperative agreement,

23 or grant under subsection (a) shall, in carrying out sub24 section (b)—
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1 (1) use not more than 25 percent of those

2 funds to support nationwide child restraint edu3 cation programs that are in operation at the time

4 that the funds are made available;

5 (2) use not more than 25 percent of those

6 funds to support State child restraint education pro7 grams that are in operation at the time that the

8 funds are made available; and

9 (3) use at least 50 percent of those funds to im10 plement national, State, and local child restraint

11 education programs that are not in operation at the

12 time that the funds are made available.

13 SEC. 5. APPLICATIONS AND REPORTS.

14 (a) APPLICATIONS.—To enter into a contract, cooper15 ative agreement, or grant agreement under section 4(a),

16 the appropriate official of an agency or organization de17 scribed in that section shall submit an application to the

18 Secretary at such time, in such manner, and accompanied

19 by such information as the Secretary may reasonably re20 quire.

21 (b) REPORTS.—

22 (1) IN GENERAL.—The appropriate official of

23 each agency or organization that enters into a con24 tract, cooperative agreement, or grant agreement

25 under section 4(a) shall prepare and submit to the
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1 Secretary, an annual report for the period covered

2 by the contract, cooperative agreement, or grant

3 agreement.

4 (2) REPORTS.—A report described in paragraph

5 (1) shall—

6 (A) contain such information as the Sec7 retary may require; and

8 (B) at a minimum, describe the program

9 activities undertaken with the funds made avail10 able under the contract, cooperative agreement,

11 or grant agreement, including—

12 (i) any child restraint education pro13 gram that has been developed directly or

14 indirectly by the agency or organization

15 and the target population of that program;

16 (ii) support materials for such a pro17 gram that have been obtained by that

18 agency or organization and the method by

19 which the agency or organization distrib20 uted those materials; and

21 (iii) any initiatives undertaken by the

22 agency or organization to develop public23 private partnerships to secure non-Federal

24 support for the development and distribu-
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1 tion of child restraint education programs

2 and materials.

3 SEC. 6. REPORT TO CONGRESS.

4 Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment

5 of this Act, and annually thereafter, the Secretary shall

6 prepare, and submit to Congress, a report on the imple7 mentation of this Act that includes a description of the

8 programs undertaken and materials developed and distrib9 uted by the agencies and organizations that receive funds

10 under section 4(a).

11 SEC. 7. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

12 For the purpose of carrying out section 4, there are

13 authorized to be appropriated to the Department of

14 Transportation $7,500,000 for each of fiscal years 1998

15 and 1999, of which not more than $350,000 may be spent

16 in any fiscal year for administrative costs.

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