I

105TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 784

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

improved national, State, and local child passenger protection program

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

FEBRUARY 13, 1997

Mrs. MORELLA (for herself, Mr. HOYER, Mr. UNDERWOOD, Mr. FROST, and

Mr. GONZALEZ) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the

Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure

A BILL

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

passenger 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 The Congress finds the following:

8 (1) Annually the losses in the United States

9 from motor vehicle collisions is estimated to be over
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1 800 deaths and over 80,000 injuries to children

2 through the age of 4.

3 (2) Properly used child restraints in motor vehi4 cles can reduce the chance of serious or fatal injury

5 in a motor vehicle collision by 69 percent for infants

6 and 47 percent for toddlers through the age of 4.

7 (3) Some of the most common seating position

8 designs that have emerged in motor vehicles during

9 the last decade make secure installation of child re10 straints difficult and, in some circumstances, impos11 sible.

12 (4) Results from regional child restraint clinics

13 have shown that 70 to 90 percent of child restraints

14 are improperly installed or otherwise misused largely

15 due to the complication and wide variation of seat

16 belt and child restraint designs.

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

18 availability of national, State, and local child re19 straint education programs and supporting resources

20 and materials to help agencies and associated orga21 nizations to carry out effective public education in

22 child restraints.

23 SEC. 3. CHILD PASSENGER EDUCATION.

24 (a) AWARDS.—The Secretary may enter into con25 tracts or cooperative agreements with, and may make
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1 grants to, State highway offices and other experienced

2 child passenger safety organizations to obtain and distrib3 ute national, State, and local child restraint education pro4 grams and supporting educational materials.

5 (b) USE OF FUNDS.—Funds provided under a con6 tract, cooperative agreement, or grant under subsection

7 (a) shall be used to implement child restraint programs

8 which are designed to prevent deaths and injuries to chil9 dren through the age of 4 and which—

10 (1) educate the public in all aspects of proper

11 installation of child restraints using standard seat

12 belt hardware, supplemental hardware and modifica13 tion devices where needed, and special installation

14 techniques;

15 (2) educate the public in appropriate child re16 straint design selection and placement and in har17 ness threading and harness adjustment; and

18 (3) train and retrain child passenger safety pro19 fessionals, police officers, fire and emergency medi20 cal personnel, and other educators in all aspects of

21 child restraint use.

22 (c) DISTRIBUTION OF FUNDS.—An entity which re23 ceives funds under a contract, cooperative agreement, or

24 grant under subsection (a) shall in carrying out subsection

25 (b)—
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1 (1) use not more than 25 percent of such funds

2 on existing nationwide child restraint education pro3 grams;

4 (2) use not more than 25 percent of such funds

5 on existing State child restraint education programs;

6 and

7 (3) use at least 50 percent of such funds to im8 plement new national, State, and local child re9 straint education programs.

10 SEC. 4. APPLICATIONS AND REPORTS.

11 (a) APPLICATIONS.—An entity desiring a contract,

12 cooperative agreement, or grant under section 3(a) shall

13 submit an application to the Secretary at such time, in

14 such manner, and accompanied by such information as the

15 Secretary may reasonably require.

16 (b) REPORTS.—An entity which receives a contract,

17 cooperative agreement, or grant under section 3(a) shall

18 prepare and submit to the Secretary an annual report dur19 ing the period in which it receives funds under such con20 tract, cooperative agreement, or grant. Such a report shall

21 contain such information as the Secretary may require

22 and shall, at a minimum, describe the program activities

23 undertaken with such funds, including—
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1 (1) any child restraint education program that

2 has been developed directly or indirectly by such en3 tity and the target population of such program;

4 (2) support materials for such a program that

5 have been obtained by such entity and the method

6 by which the entity distributed such materials; and

7 (3) any initiatives undertaken by such entity to

8 develop public-private partnerships to secure non9 Federal support for the development and distribu10 tion of child restraint education programs and mate11 rials.

12 SEC. 5. REPORT TO CONGRESS.

13 The Secretary shall prepare and submit to the Con14 gress an annual report on the implementation of this Act

15 which includes a description of the programs undertaken

16 and materials developed and distributed by entities receiv17 ing funds under section 3(a).

18 SEC. 6. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

19 For the purpose of carrying out section 3 of this Act,

20 there are authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary

21 $7,500,000 for each of the fiscal years 1998 and 1999,

22 of which not more than $350,000 may be spent in any

23 fiscal year for administrative costs.

24 SEC. 7. DEFINITIONS.

25 For purposes of this Act—
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1 (1) the term ‘‘Secretary’’ means the Secretary

2 of Transportation;

3 (2) the term ‘‘child restraint education pro4 grams’’ includes publications, audiovisual presen5 tations, demonstrations, and computerized pro6 grams; and

7 (3) the term ‘‘State’’ means any State of the

8 United States, the District of Columbia, the Com9 monwealth of Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin

10 Islands, Guam, American Samoa, the Northern Mar11 iana Islands, and any other territory or possession

12 of the United States.

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