Safety should be everyone�s top priority and [name of official, position in organization] today reminded all [state citizens/organization members] during this Buckle Up America! Week, May 18-25, that �saving a life is a snap.� This annual, nationwide event encourages everyone on the road to use seat belts and child safety seats and to use them properly.

�Seat belts are the most important lifesaving equipment in your vehicle, but they only work if you take the time to use them correctly,� said [name of official]. �It only takes a second to snap the buckle on a seat belt, but the benefits can last you a lifetime.�

Nearly one-third of all Americans � and an astonishing 40 percent of children � still don�t use their seat belts or child safety seats.

Under the Secretary of Transportation�s direction, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) developed a national initiative to increase seat belt use. The plan calls for building and using public-private partnerships, enacting stronger state laws, encouraging active enforcement of existing laws, and educating the public. The goal is to raise national seat belt use to 85 percent by the year 2000 and to 90 percent by 2005 (from 69 percent in 1997) and also reduce child occupant fatalities by 25 percent. At these rates, this will save approximately 5,500 to 6,800 additional lives, prevent more than 130,000 injuries, and save $8.8 billion in related costs every year.

The Air Bag & Seat Belt Safety Campaign, a national coalition, is actively participating in Buckle Up America! Week and [Monday/today] kicked off its second annual Operation ABC: Mobilizing America to Buckle Up Children. Operation ABC is an unprecedented mobilization by law enforcement agencies to conduct high visibility enforcement of child safety laws. All across the nation, law enforcement officers will set up child safety checkpoints to ensure that children are properly buckled up. Operation ABC activities will occur throughout Buckle Up America! Week. [Include your local or state law enforcement�s participation.]

Through a joint venture between the Chevrolet Division of General Motors and McDonald�s, more than 12 million safety booklets containing family fun travel games and activities and child passenger safety information are expected to be handed out nationwide during Buckle Up America! Week. Under this program, local traffic safety advocates are teaming up with their local McDonald�s and/or Chevrolet dealers to conduct Buckle Up America! Week activities. [Include your local group�s activity.]

�You have too much to lose if you don�t buckle up,� said [name of official]. �Using a seat belt will halve your chances of being killed or badly injured in a serious crash and using a child safety seat will improve your child�s chance by nearly 70 percent.�

According to research compiled by NHTSA, from 1982 through 1996, an estimated 85,000 lives were saved by seat belts. If all children were correctly restrained in age/size appropriate child safety seats, their fatalities could be cut in half.

All states have laws requiring infants and toddlers to ride in safety seats, but children still ride unprotected, and the consequences are frightening. According to NHTSA, 55 percent of children fatally injured in the front seat were riding unprotected.

�Let�s use Buckle Up America! Week to commit ourselves to wearing seat belts on every trip, ensuring that everyone who rides in our cars is buckled up and that all children age 12 and under ride in the back seat in properly installed restraints appropriate for their age and size,� [name of official] said. �Remember, too, never place a rear-facing infant seat in front of an air bag. Drivers and front seat passengers should maintain at least a 10-inch distance between themselves and their air bag. While we cannot always avoid a crash, we can take the responsibility to do everything in our power to protect ourselves and our loved ones.�

For more information about Buckle Up America! Week, contact [name] at [phone number]. To find out more about local Operation ABC activities, call [name of local law enforcement agency] at [phone number] or call the Air Bag & Seat Belt Safety Campaign at (202) 625-2570.