Buckle Up............... 
Buckle Up & Safety Campaign: 

For Maria Esther Hernandez of Detroit, who couldn't afford a car seat for her 5-year-old daughter, Brenda, the click of a safety seat strap locking sounds just right. "I'm so very grateful that they're going to give us a seat," said a smiling Hernandez through translator Kiki Luna.

Thanks to the Safe Kids Buckle Up child passenger safety program sponsored by the UAW and General Motors Corp., Hernandez and thousands of families are driving safer these days.

Hernandez was among 10 metro-Detroit families whose vehicles received child safety seat checkups June 19 outside Children's Hospital of Michigan.

UAW Vice President Richard Shoemaker and representatives from the UAW-GM Center for Human Resources, GM and the National Safe Kids Campaign were on hand to show their support for the program, which began in 1996 in an effort to promote increased awareness of child passenger safety.

"I've attended a number of checkup events like this one, and it always warms my heart to see smiles on the faces of the parents who know that their children will be safer as a result of our joint efforts," said Shoemaker, who directs the union's GM Department. "Without a doubt, our expanded commitment helps make the national Safe Kids Buckle Up campaign the nation's leading and most effective child passenger safety advocate."

Safe Kids - the first and only national nonprofit organization of its kind - strives to stimulate changes in attitudes, behavior and the environment to promote child safety.

Statistics show that motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of unintentional injury-related deaths among children 14 and younger. Each year, more than 1,700 children are killed and another 264,000 are injured as occupants of motor vehicles.

A Safe Kids survey released in February showed that 14 percent of our nation's children ride completely unrestrained, and another 33 percent ride in the wrong restraint for their age and size.

Since the program's inception in 1996, more than $25 million has been donated to Safe Kids. It has inspected 250,000 child safety seats in more than 6,500 safety checkups and donated 163,000 child safety seats.

The event also launched the group's expanded child passenger safety outreach program with 30 new Chevy Express Cargo vans in cities across the country. The new vans join a fleet of 51 Chevy Ventures that GM donated in 2000. Like their predecessors, the new vehicles are equipped with everything needed to perform checkups, including tents, traffic safety cones and signage.

Sue Jane Smith, a registered nurse and trauma coordinator at Children's Hospital, personally sees 700 children involved in injury accidents each year who are admitted.

"Child passenger safety goes beyond all socioeconomic levels," said Smith. "We don't just check car seats. We teach families to install them properly, educate them and save lives."

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