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Loretta greets the Rodriguez Family at Child Safety Seat Day.
Loretta meets with constituents of the 47th Congressional District (above and below).
Loretta and the staff of State Farm Insurance
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GARDEN GROVE, Calif.; May 15, 2004--Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez joined State Farm Isurance and MOMS Resource Center to sponsor "Child Safety Seat Day" in Santa Ana, Calif. today. The event, held at Santa Ana College, gave away close to 40 child safety seats to low-income families and provided saftey inspections of seats that had already been installed in automobiles.
Employees from State Farm Insurance, Safety Belt USA, and members of the Latino Peace Officers Association inspected approximately 19 vehicles ensuring that child seats were installed properly and re-installed those seats that didn't meet meet safety law requirements.
"We became very interested in doing this sort of event when we learned that nearly 73 percent of all child car restraints are improperly used, which can needlessly expose children to an increased risk of death or injury," said Rep. Sanchez. "We gladly worked with State Farm and MOMS Resource Center to organize this event to help educate residents and keep their families safer."
The U.S. Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) found that child restraint use is up from 50.6% in the 1990s to 71.5% when looking at current restraint use for children weighing 60 pounds or less. Tragically, nearly 12% of children were completely unrestrained - and thus at great risk, according to NHTSA.
Unfortunately, although restraint usage is up, 72.6% of those tested were misusing the devices. The most common critical mistakes were loose harness straps securing the child and a loose vehicle safety belt attachment to the child restraint.
There has also been a positive correlation between drivers using safety belts and children being restrained. Of children transported by belted drivers, 92% were restrained, compared to only 62% of the children transported by unbelted drivers.
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