PRESS RELEASE:
The Kansas City Missouri Police Department will join other law enforcement agencies Sept. 12-19 in an aggressive effort to ensure children are buckled up properly.
National Child Passenger Safety Week starts Saturday and will feature extra KCPD officers out enforcing child passenger safety laws to reduce fatalities and injuries to children. Missouri law requires all children younger than age 8 to be in an approved child safety or booster seat until they weigh at least 80 pounds or reach 4 feet 8 inches tall.
Car crashes are the No. 1 killer of children in America, according to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. During the last three years in Missouri, 56 children were killed and 437 more suffered disabling injuries from motor vehicle accidents.
The National Highway Safety Administration says that child safety seats reduce the risk of being killed in a car crash by 71 percent for an infant and 54 percent for a toddler. This is why all 50 states have laws that require the use of child safety restraints. Regular child safety seat and safety belt use is the single, most effective way to protect people and reduce fatalities in motor vehicle crashes.
“Kansas City Police care deeply about the safety of children, which is why you’ll see additional officers out September 12 through 19 cracking down on violators of child safety seat laws,” said KCPD Chief James Corwin.
For more information on Missouri seat belt usage, visit www.saveMOlives.com.
