Contact: Sue Rogan, 240-777-3722
For Immediate Release: September 6, 2001

County Leads Nation in Child
Passenger Safety Activities;
Forms New Partnership with Local Retailer

Montgomery County leads the nation in child passenger safety activities and its training program was recently presented at the national Lifesavers Conference for Child Passenger Safety in Denver, Colorado.

In addition, the National SAFE KIDS Campaign honored the Montgomery County SAFE KIDS Coalition in June for checking more car seats in a one-year period than any other organization in the country. So far this year, Montgomery County has checked more than 6,000 car seats. A national record was set earlier this year when more than 777 car seats were checked in a single day at a SAFE KIDS Buckle Up event hosted by Fitzgerald Auto Mall, a major partner with the County in child passenger safety activities.

Car seat checks and training classes are held monthly at various locations in Montgomery County, as well as by appointment at 13 locations throughout the County. Since the program began in 1996, there have been 11 reported cases where children have been involved in automobile accidents and were saved from potential injury because they were in a car seat installed by a child passenger safety technician.

The Division of Consumer Affairs (DCA) in the Department of Housing and Community Affairs, who coordinates the child passenger safety program, has entered into a new partnership with Great Beginnings, a local retailer of infant and children’s items. This partnership will help provide parents with the information needed to choose an appropriate child safety seat, and will offer information on how to properly install the seat. Studies have shown that while properly installed car seats are approximately 70 percent effective in reducing infant deaths and injuries to older children, only 10 percent of car seats are properly installed.

The new partnership will also allow DCA staff to use Great Beginnings’ space to train child passenger safety technicians, as well as providing a covered area for conducting car seat inspections by DCA.

“I am pleased that Great Beginnings has joined our efforts to protect the children of this County,” said County Executive Douglas M. Duncan. “With more than 12,000 infants born every year in Montgomery County, we need everyone who has contact with parents and caregivers to help us in protecting children from injury or death.”

Great Beginnings will celebrate this partnership during its grand opening on Saturday, September 8 at 10:30 a.m., at its new location at 18501 North Frederick Avenue, Gaithersburg.

For more information about the County’s child passenger safety initiative, contact the Division of Consumer Affairs at 240-777-3636 or visit its web site at hca.emontgomery.org.