Sen. Ossoff pushes to help more families access car seats and proper installation training
Currently, more than 500 children are injured in car crashes each day
Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff is working to help more Georgia families get car seats to keep their children safe.
Following his recent conversations with Georgia parents and organizations during National Child Passenger Safety Week, Sen. Ossoff launched an inquiry with the Department of Transportation and the Department of Agriculture to cut red tape and help more Georgia families access car seats, a key to child safety.
A child’s risk of fatal injury reduces by 71% for infants and 54% for toddlers once they are properly strapped into a car seat. However, nearly half of all parents have incorrectly installed their child’s car seat and many others struggle to afford a car seat at all.
In a letter to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), Sen. Ossoff is pushing the agencies to work more closely with nonprofits and state and local governments to create and implement child car seat distribution programs that provide families, especially in low-income communities, with car seats and installation training.
“Wider utilization of state, local, and nonprofit distribution programs will save kids’ lives,” Sen. Ossoff wrote in the letter. “Despite the importance of child car seat distribution programs, there is little nationwide data on where they may fail to reach particular demographic and geographic communities. I ask NHTSA Acting Administrator Carlson to solicit this lifesaving data and share findings with the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) and state and local agencies to strengthen collaboration and implementation.”
This is the latest action Sen. Ossoff has taken to protect the lives of children in Georgia and across the country.
Last month, Sen. Ossoff pressed the Director of the FBI to crack down on online predators and strengthen Federal protections against child sexual abuse and exploitation.
Earlier this summer, Sen. Ossoff pressed the government to provide parents with timely notifications of defective or dangerous products and ensure that children remain safe from harm.
Sen. Ossoff has also successfully worked across the aisle to pass a bipartisan bill to help more families access baby formula.
Click here to read Sen. Ossoff’s letter.
