Law Enforcement Works to Get America Buckled Up!

This fall marks the completion of a successful first year of getting the air bag safety message out to millions of Americans. We owe a great deal of the Campaign�s success to the participation of child safety advocates, law enforcement officers and other concerned volunteers who took part in our events this past year - events such as Safe Travel Action Teams (STAT) over Thanksgiving and Operation ABC during Buckle Up America! Week this past May.

The 1996 Thanksgiving STAT event wouldn�t have been possible without the overwhelming number of volunteers - many of them law enforcement - who staffed rest stops across the country and distributed air bag and child safety seat information during one of the country�s most heavily traveled holidays.

We moved forward from Thanksgiving with a goal to mobilize the nation�s law enforcement around child passenger safety. As a result, tens of thousands of officers from more than 1,000 law enforcement agencies including state patrols, sheriffs, and police departments in all 50 states participated in high visibility enforcement activities during Buckle Up America! Week.

Our research shows there�s almost universal public support for strong laws that enable police officers to stop and ticket a driver if children riding in the car are not properly restrained in either a child safety seat or safety belt. We want to capitalize on that public support � as well as the success of this past May�s Operation ABC � and encourage even more law enforcement agencies to participate in high visibility enforcement activities during the next Operation ABC (May 18-25, 1998). Enforcement is the key to making sure America�s children ride safely. The results of this year�s mobilization were remarkable and will serve as a model for high visibility enforcement activities in years to come.

Please contact me or Pearse Edwards at (202) 625-2570 if you have any questions or suggestions on ways to improve next year�s mobilization. I look forward to working with all of you again during the upcoming months.

Executive Director

Operation ABC: Planning for Bigger and Better in �98

Chiefs� Challenge Drive Away a Winner This year�s winner of the Chiefs� Challenge will drive away in a 1997 Ford Expedition. The IACP will announce the winner during their annual conference, October 25-30 in Orlando, Florida. The Chief�s Challenge, an annual competition among state, local and federal law enforcement agencies, acknowledges agencies who excel in traffic enforcement. The Air Bag Safety Campaign and the IACP urge everyone to enter the Chiefs� Challenge. For details on how to participate, please contact PFC Bob Wall, Fairfax County, VA PD and IACP Traffic Safety Specialist at (800) 843-4227, ext. 321.

Operation ABC, held during Buckle Up America! Week this past May, was the first time in the nation�s history that law enforcement in all 50 states and the District of Columbia were coordinated in a drive to enforce child passenger safety laws over a concentrated period of time. Tens of thousands of officers from more than 1,000 law enforcement agencies nationwide participated. As a result, nearly 200 million people heard the Operation ABC message through intensive media coverage. All together there were over 450 national and local television news stories (in the 50 largest markets and other targeted regions), over 300 stories in daily newspapers, and 150 radio news stories.

*(Each year motor vehicle crashes take the lives of more than 2,100 child passengers ages 0 to 15 and seriously injure 327,000 more.)

And, Operation ABC �98 will be bigger and better. How?

More agencies, and resources, more news coverage, and more families traveling safely. The Air Bag Safety Campaign, in partnership with the IACP, is calling on every law enforcement agency to take advantage of this national mobilization - May 18 - 25, 1998. As with last year�s effort, the Campaign will support participating agencies with Operation ABC planning materials, template press kits, public education materials, and visuals, such as banners, free- of-charge. The Campaign also will assist with media outreach around the week.

Stepped up enforcement through programs such as Operation ABC is critical because as a recent study showed, unbuckled adults are sending a deadly message to children. In fact, when a driver is unbuckled in a crash, 70 per- cent of the time children riding in that vehicle are unbuckled as well. Conversely, when a driver is buckled, 94 percent of the time children riding in that vehicle are buckled. Clearly, education alone is not enough to protect children from adults who fail to comply with the law.

We encourage you to plan for Operation ABC �98 early by mailing in the coupon on the next page, or contact the Campaign at (202) 625-2570 to get on board!

Officers Learn Correct Child Passenger Safety

The IACP has proven itself a leader in safeguarding the motoring public. It has long recognized the importance of occupant protection both by adults and children and have become even more aggressive in the effort to make child passenger safety a priority for all law enforcement agencies. To achieve this goal, the IACP � working with NHTSA � launched Operation KIDS.

Operation KIDS is a series of training classes nationwide to increase officers� awareness of the importance of child passenger safety, to educate officers about the correct use of child safety seats and to help them identify misuse of child safety restraints in vehicles they stop.

The goal of these classes is to reduce the unnecessary and preventable motor vehicle injuries and fatalities to infants and children through increased education, enforce- ment and compliance with existing child passenger safety laws. �Response to these classes is amazing. We have conducted 50 training sessions to date. Officers come to the training underestimating just how critical correct child safety seat installation is to keeping kids safe,� said Officer Bob Wall of the Fairfax County, VA Police Department. Officer Wall also cited recent safety seat checks in Prince William County, Virginia, where 110 seats were checked and none were installed correctly. In Oahu, Hawaii, 77 safety seats were checked and only one was installed correctly.

The Air Bag Safety Campaign is proud to support the IACP and Operation KIDS. To obtain a schedule of upcoming training sessions, or if your department is interested in conducting a training session on site, please contact PFC Bob Wall, Fairfax County, VA PD and IACP Traffic Safety Specialist at (800) 843-4227, ext. 321.

Buckle Up America Kicks Off

Health and safety professionals, business leaders, law enforcement officials, and national and state leaders joined together in a televised event October 6 to kick off Buckle Up America, the grassroots effort to increase seat belt use nationwide. The one hour program originated from Washington, DC, and included participants at over 80 sites nationwide.

�Today we launch a renewed effort to Buckle Up America,� said Dr. Ricardo Martinez, Administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. �Every hour someone dies in this country simply because they didn�t buckle up and thousands more are injured. Increasing seat belt use is the single most effective action we can take to save lives and reduce injuries on our nation�s roadways.�

Buckle Up America calls for an integrated strategy: build state and local Buckle Up America partnerships, use public education to raise the priority of increasing seat belt and child restraint use, pass stronger laws, and support high visibility enforcement of seat belt and child restraint laws. The goals of the campaign are to increase national seat belt use to 90 percent and reduce child occupant fatalities 25 per- cent by the year 2005.

Dr. Ricardo Martinez, NHTSA Administrator, at Buckle Up America Teleconference Launch

Law enforcement officers are key players in this movement because research has shown that high visibility enforcement � stepped up enforcement coupled with publicity that highlights the enforcement efforts � works to increase seat belt use. How? With many part-time and non-belt users, the fear of a citation and fine outweighs their perception of personal risk, or risk to their children, when they fail to buckle up.

�We know that people will buckle up when law enforcement goes out and visibly patrols for seat belt violations,� said Chief Ron Palmer of Tulsa, Oklahoma during the Buckle Up America program. �For many, nothing is worse than getting a ticket, and we must continue to use this motivational tool to our advantage.�

We encourage you to participate in Buckle Up America and join with other partners in your state and community to educate citizens, support stronger legislation and enforce seat belt and child passenger safety laws. With your help, we can reach our goals to increase seat belt use, save lives, reduce injuries and save money. For more information, please visit NHTSA�s web site at www.nhtsa.dot.gov, or call your NHTSA regional office.

Mobilizing America to Buckle Up Kids

	I pledge to work with the Air Bag Safety Campaign in its mobilization to make unbuckled children unacceptable in my community. I commit my department to participate in this national mobilization by conducting high visibility education and enforcement of child passenger safety in accordance with the law in my state during Buckle Up America! Week, May 18-25, 1998.
contact department city/state/zip phone/fax			I would like to help plan activities to coincide with the mobilization.
			I am already planning activities for this week and would like to partner with the mobilization.
			I wish to receive all materials related to the mobilization.
		Please check all that apply.

Public Supports Strong Seatbelt Laws and Enforcement

• By a margin of 61 to 35 percent, Americans support primary seat belt laws.

• Americans support primary enforcement laws for children by almost a nine to one margin. (88% support, 10% oppose)

• By a margin of 70 to 26 percent, Americans agree that it should be considered unacceptable for anyone to ride unbuckled.

• By a two to one margin, voters are more likely to vote for an elected official who supports police having the authority to stop and ticket a driver because they were NOT wearing a safety belt. (30% agree, 14% oppose)

  July 1997 survey of 800 registered voters.

  Public Opinion Strategies. Margin of error +/- 3.5%

• Those states with higher safety belt usage rates are more likely to be satisfied with the strength of their laws. (37% dissatisfaction with present belt laws in states with over 80% belt use, 55% dissatisfaction in states with under 50% belt use)

  March 1997 survey of 800 registered voters.

  Public Opinion Strategies. Margin of error +/- 3.5%