Partner Activities

Partnership With NADA Expands

NHTSA continues to work actively on booster seat promotional efforts with the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) as part of a five-year memorandum of understanding between the two organizations signed in June 2002. As an outgrowth of the NADA/NHTSA partnership, NADA joined the Management Advisory Committee of the Air Bag and Seat Belt Safety Campaign in 2003, and has actively supported efforts to enact primary safety belt legislation at the State level.

In 2003, NADA developed and distributed a special action kit for dealers to use to conduct onsite child passenger safety activities and events, and generated media coverage on the importance of booster seat use. In addition, NADA and NHTSA have conducted an ongoing variety of joint activities, including NADA’s pronouncement of October 2004 as "Booster Seat Safety Month” -- a component of NADA’s “Boost for Safety” program, jointly developed with NHTSA.

As part of Booster Seat Safety Month, automobile dealers nationwide raised public awareness about child passenger safety and hosted child safety seat inspection events at their dealerships. This national awareness campaign kicked off with a press conference and special child safety seat inspection event at Monument Chevrolet, a new dealership in Pasadena, Texas, on September 23, 2004. Nearly 500 people attended and child safety seats were inspected in 113 vehicles. NADA conducted similar observances in September 2005.

Private Sector Leadership

Avis Rent A Car/Cendant Corporation, a NHTSA partner, continues to promote booster seat safety through the distribution of safety material, postings on its Web site, highlighting child safety seat use during the rental confirmation process, and special promotions. For example, during the summer of 2004, Avis offered a "rent one, get one free" special for booster seats. The promotion enabled customers who rented a booster seat to obtain another seat for use by a second child passenger, free of charge.

Babies “R” Us has maintained a high level of activity in the retail-based promotion of child safety seats and booster seats, and has made child passenger safety an important part of its business. Since 2003, in cooperation with NHTSA, the company has heavily promoted child passenger safety in its stores during Child Passenger Safety Week in February, and during Baby Safety Month (September). Certified child passenger safety technicians have taken part in local store-sponsored child safety seat inspection events and in-store promotions. Babies “R” Us distributed child passenger safety educational material, and printed child safety seat discount coupons --100,000 in 2004 and 125,000 in 2005 -- that were sent to prominent national organizations and distributed to families in need around the country.

CarMax announced in June 2005 its continued financial support for an initiative begun in 2004 by the National Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies Coalition -- a NHTSA partner -- to establish and maintain the National Partnership on Booster Seat Safety. The partnership promotes the use of booster seats, with special emphasis on upgrading state laws and educating parents and caregivers about booster seat safety.

State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company has actively supported Partners for Child Passenger Safety (PCPS) -- the nation's largest study of children in crashes -- since 1997. The research conducted by PCPS, based at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, seeks to determine how and why children are being killed or injured in motor vehicle crashes. The data collected and analyzed by PCPS researchers has direct implications for automotive and restraint design, public policy and parent education.
Since 1997, PCPS has created a database containing information on more than 223,000 crashes involving 336,000 children. It has become the largest source of data on children involved on motor vehicles crashes.

PCPS is the first academic-corporate partnership devoted to the safety of children in motor vehicles. The program's methodology is unique, combining in-depth telephone interviews, on-site crash investigations, and computer crash simulations, with interdisciplinary analysis and interpretation.

New Organization Emphasizes Booster Seat Use

In 2004, “Kids Safety First,” a newly established nonprofit organization, launched a new program to help increase booster seat use nationwide (see www.kidssafetyfirst.org). Kids Safety First has developed a variety of publications in English and Spanish about the importance of buckling up kids, and how to select and use the correct child safety seat. These include hangtags, posters, and a video containing dramatic crash test footage that demonstrates the potentially disastrous consequences of not using or improperly using child restraint devices in motor vehicles.

Supported in part by Mitsubishi Motors, Kids Safety First hopes this effort will spur increased activity in child passenger safety among other foreign manufacturers, including those based in Japan, Europe, and Korea.