Ford Partners with IACP for Frontline Support of Booster Seat Safety Campaign
Ford Donates 5,000 Booster Seats to IACP

Ford Motor Company today announced a partnership with the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) to join the company's Boost America! campaign. In the coming year, Boost America! will distribute one million booster seats, half to families in need, and deliver a lifesaving automotive safety curriculum to all 154,000 of the nation's daycare, preschool and elementary schools.

As part of its partnership with IACP, Boost America! donated 5,000 booster seats to IACP for its members to distribute to the general public and to families in need. IACP will use Ford's donation to provide each of the nation's State Police Departments or highway patrols with belt-positioning booster seats for distribution within their jurisdictions. The seats will be made available, through state and local police and sheriff's departments to parents and caregivers in need. The first 100 seats were given, at IACP's 107th Annual Conference, to the Chicago police department. "Not a single child should ever be injured or killed because they weren't properly buckled and boosted in a car or truck. That's why Boost America! is pleased to partner with the IACP to educate parents and kids about the need for booster seats and to help us distribute seats to families in need. Working together, we can improve the safety of literally millions of children as they travel the nation's roads," said Bob Williams, Ford Government Sales Manager.

Addressing the National Chiefs' Challenge Awards breakfast at IACPs 107th Annual Conference in San Diego, Earl Sweeney, Chairman of the IACP Highway Safety Committee, said, "The men and women of law enforcement are on the front lines of auto safety twenty-four hours a day. With donated seats from Boost America! in cruisers and at the stations, police officers will be able to give kids a boost and correct dangerous situations on the spot."

Of the nearly 20 million children in the booster seat age group (roughly 4 through 8), only a small number—about 6 percent—are using booster seats, according to the latest data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Last year, 778 children in that age range were killed in car crashes. Tragically, the majority of whom were improperly or completely unrestrained.

As the name suggests, a booster seat boosts a child up so that the car's lap and shoulder belts fit properly. They are recommended for children who are too big for forward facing child safety seats, but too small for regular adult seat belts—between 40 and 80 pounds, or roughly ages 4 through 8. When placed in a poorly fitting adult lap and shoulder belt without a booster, the lap portion of the belt can rise over the child's abdomen and the shoulder portion of the belt can cut across the neck and face causing serious internal injuries in a crash. Children can also slip out of the belt altogether and be ejected in a crash.

Set to officially launch early next year, Boost America! is a $15 million child booster seat education campaign sponsored by Ford Motor Company, in partnership with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), AAA, Nickelodeon and others.

The International Association of Chiefs of Police is the world's oldest and largest nonprofit membership organization of police executives, with over 17,000 members in more than 100 different countries. IACP's leadership consists of the operating chief executives of international, federal, state and local agencies of all sizes.

Announced last April, Boost America! is one of the most extensive public/private child passenger safety partnerships ever created. For more information about booster seats, visit www.nhtsa.dot.gov.