News Release
Contacts:
Susan Pepperdine,
913-262-7414, cell 913-205-5304 or
susan@pepperdinepr.com
KidsAndCars.org founder to
speak at NHTSA press conference
Aug. 22 at Children’s Mercy
Hospital
Speakers
will also include mother whose child died of heatstroke in hot car
KANSAS
CITY, MO.– Aug. 21, 2012… Janette
Fennell, president
of KidsAndCars.org, a
national nonprofit child safety organization working to prevent injuries and
deaths of children in and around motor vehicles, will speak at 11 a.m.
Wednesday, Aug. 22, at a press conference sponsored by the National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration at Children’s Mercy Hospital, 2401 Gillhan Rd.,
Kansas City, Mo.
The event will focus on
programs to prevent child heatstroke deaths and injuries in hot cars and to
urge parents and caregivers to think, “Where's baby? Look before you lock.”
Speakers will also include Jodie Edwards, Ph.D., whose
family suffered a tragedy when she unknowingly left her daughter Jenna, nearly
11 months old, in a hot car while she was at work as a professor at a small
Christian university in Ohio. She thought she had taken every precaution
possible to protect her daughter and her older brother. Yet her brain ‘flipped
a switch,’ causing her to mistakenly believe she had dropped off Jenna at the
babysitter’s on the way to work. “I have talked to dozens of families who have lost children to
vehicular heatstroke,” Edwards said. “The only thing we all have in common is
that none of us realized our love wasn’t enough to protect our children from
our imperfect brains.”
KidsAndCars.org reported last week that in the six-day period
from Aug. 2 to 7 eight children from 5 months to 4 years old died of heat
stroke in vehicles in four states: Arkansas, Tennessee, Florida and New Mexico.
To educate parents and caregivers, KidsAndCars.org introduced
the “Look before you lock” program, the first of its kind, and has distributed
150,000 information cards to hospitals nationwide. “We want parents to understand
from Day One that this is something they need to know in order to protect their
baby,” Fennell said. “Sadly, these tragedies can and do happen to anyone, even
the most conscientious parents.”
In 2005, KidsAndCars.org was successful in getting a
provision included in the omnibus federal transportation bill that requires
data collection of incidents that are vehicle-related, but take place off of
our public roads and highways. In January 2009, the first report was issued
stating that more than 1,700 children and adults are killed and more than
840,000 injured every year. “Though significant, we believe the actual numbers
are much higher,” Fennell said. “KidsAndCars.org is working to collect statistics
on near misses, which traditionally have not been reported.”
“After
so many years of carrying this torch, KidsAndCars.org is gratified to see the
muscle and tremendous outreach efforts of NHTSA to take on a leadership role in
working to end these preventable
tragedies.”
Based on incidents
documented by KidsAndCars.org:
54 percent of the
time children die after
being unknowingly left inside a hot vehicle.
32 percent when
children got into a vehicle on their own, similar to the situation that Hays described.
12 percent when they
were knowingly left in vehicle
2 percent of the
circumstances were not clear.
Safety Tips from KidsAndCars.org
KidsAndCars.org provides these BE SAFE safety tips on a card
being distributed to new parents:
Back seat – Put something in the back seat so you have to open
the door when leaving the vehicle – cell phone, employee badge, handbag, etc.
Every child should be correctly restrained in the back seat.
Every child should be correctly restrained in the back seat.
Stuffed animal – Move it from the car seat to the front seat
to remind you when your baby is in the back seat.
Ask your babysitter or child-care provider to call you within 10 minutes if your child hasn’t arrived on time.
Focus on driving – Avoid cell phone calls and texting while driving.
Every time you park your vehicle open the back door to make sure no one has been left behind.
Ask your babysitter or child-care provider to call you within 10 minutes if your child hasn’t arrived on time.
Focus on driving – Avoid cell phone calls and texting while driving.
Every time you park your vehicle open the back door to make sure no one has been left behind.
For additional information about ways to keep
children safe in and around vehicles, visit www.KidsAndCars.org
###
About KidsAndCars.org: Founded in 1996, KidsAndCars.org is a national
nonprofit child safety organization dedicated
to preventing injuries and deaths of children in and around
motor vehicles. KidAndCars.org promotes awareness
among parents, caregivers and the general public about the dangers to children,
including backover and frontover incidents, and heatstroke from being
inadvertently left in a vehicle. The organization works to prevent tragedies
through data collection, education and public awareness, policy change and
survivor advocacy.
