Scheduled from May 24 - May 31, this is the fourth nationwide crackdown in just two years because, organizers say, repetition is the key to their success. The call for zero tolerance for unbuckled children comes as the Department of Transportation released new data today showing that as the first three Mobilizations were conducted over the past two years, child restraint use rose dramatically. One of the most significant findings is that restraint use for children ages 1 through 4 jumped from 60 percent to 87 percent from 1996 to 1998. The Mobilization was launched today at the Children's National Medical Center to focus attention on the nearly 1,000 children who are injured in car crashes every day.
Traffic crashes are the leading cause of death and injury to children in the United States.
This decade, more than 60,000 children, infants to teenagers, have died in traffic crashes. Although it's illegal in all 50 states for children to ride in a vehicle unbuckled, six out of ten children killed in automobile crashes are completely unrestrained. If the drivers had followed the law, nearly half of those children would be alive today. There should be zero tolerance for drivers with unbuckled kids in every state, every day of the year. The increase in child restraint use in the last two years reflects the importance of enforcing the laws.