PRINTER'S NO. 2053
No. 331 Session of 2008
INTRODUCED BY TOMLINSON, MAY 13, 2008
INTRODUCED AND ADOPTED, MAY 13, 2008
A RESOLUTION
1 Designating May 17, 2008, as "Child Passenger Safety Day" in
2 Pennsylvania.
3 WHEREAS, Motor vehicle crashes remain the leading cause of
4 death for children between three and fourteen years of age in
5 the United States; and
6 WHEREAS, According to the Centers for Disease Control,
7 203,000 child passengers were injured and 1,451 child passengers
8 were killed in motor vehicle crashes in 2005; and
9 WHEREAS, According to an ongoing 10 year study by Partners
10 for Child Passenger Safety (PCPS), a partnership which involves
11 The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, State Farm Insurance
12 Companies and the University of Pennsylvania, 48% of children
13 between four and eight years of age are incorrectly restrained;
14 and
15 WHEREAS, Safe Kids Pennsylvania found that almost 85% of
16 children placed in booster seats are improperly restrained; and
17 WHEREAS, 60% of all children between four and eight years of
1 age are correctly restrained in booster seats; and
2 WHEREAS, Child restraint use in this Commonwealth has
3 increased from 51% in 1999 to 79% in 2006; and
4 WHEREAS, The PCPS study is a scientific and systematic
5 approach that seeks to determine how and why children are being
6 killed or injured in motor vehicle crashes; and
7 WHEREAS, PCPS has created a database containing more than
8 455,000 crashes involving 669,000 children, representing the
9 largest source of data on children involved in motor vehicle
10 crashes; and
11 WHEREAS, PCPS is the first academic-corporate partnership
12 devoted to the safety of children in motor vehicles whose
13 methodology combines in-depth telephone interviews, onsite crash
14 investigations and computer crash simulations with
15 interdisciplinary analysis and interpretation; and
16 WHEREAS, PCPS findings are published regularly in leading
17 medical and engineering journals and presented at scientific
18 conferences; and
19 WHEREAS, PCPS outreach to the automotive and restraint
20 community, policymakers, legislators, public health educators
21 and the media has improved child occupant safety; and
22 WHEREAS, The goal of PCPS is to share information about the
23 unique safety needs of children and teenage drivers; and
24 WHEREAS, "Child Passenger Safety Day" turns research into
25 action and is an excellent opportunity for parents to put their
26 minds at ease by having a trained technician check their
27 children's car seats and booster seats and provide potentially
28 lifesaving information; and
29 WHEREAS, To spread the word of child passenger safety and how
30 parents and guardians can better protect their children, State
20080S0331R2053 - 2 -
1 Farm Insurance Companies have scheduled 30 free child safety
2 seat checkpoints across this Commonwealth in 2008; therefore be
3 it
4 RESOLVED, That the Senate designate May 17, 2008, as "Child
5 Passenger Safety Day" in Pennsylvania.
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