NHTSA: More than 1/3 of kids killed in car crashes weren't in car seats or wearing belts

NHTSA Finds More Than a Third of Children Killed in Crashes Were Not in Car Seats or Wearing Seat Belts

WASHINGTON, Sept. 19, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- According to the Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), more than a third of children under age 13 who died in passenger vehicle crashes in 2011 were not in car seats or wearing seat belts. To help eliminate these deaths, and as part of Child Passenger Safety Week, NHTSA is highlighting the important safety benefits associated with the proper use of car seats, booster seats, and seat belts.

"Safety is our top priority, particularly when it comes to protecting our children – who are our most vulnerable passengers," said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. "Parents and caregivers can be the first line of defense by ensuring their children are correctly secured in the right seat for their size and age, and by buckling up themselves."

Motor vehicle crashes remain a leading cause of death for children. In 2011, almost two children under the age of 13 were killed and 338 were injured every day while riding in cars, SUVs, pickups and vans. Of the children killed, the percentage of unrestrained fatalities, with no car seat or seat belt, varied by vehicle type, with greater percentages of unrestrained fatalities occurring in larger vehicles: SUVs (55 percent), pick-ups (43 percent), vans (40 percent), and cars (24 percent).

"Regardless of the size of the vehicle, the age of the child or the length of the trip, children should always be properly restrained in a car seat, booster or seat belt," said NHTSA Administrator David Strickland. "Car seats, when correctly installed and used, provide proven life-saving and injury-reducing benefits for child passengers."

From 1975 through 2011, NHTSA estimates that approximately 10,000 lives were saved by child restraints for children under the age of 5 in passenger vehicles, with more than 260 lives saved in 2011 alone.

NHTSA offers parents and caregivers the following safety tips:

-Determine if your child is in the right seat for his or her age and size;
-Read the instructions and labels that come with your child's car seat and read the vehicle owner's manual for important information on installing the seat in your particular vehicle;
-Go to your local car seat inspection station to have your seat checked by a Certified Child Passenger Safety Technician;
-Use the Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children (LATCH) restraint system or seat belt to install your car seat and use the top tether to secure forward-facing car seats;
-Register your car seat and booster seat at SaferCar.gov so you will be informed if there is a safety recall on your model; and
-Always wear your seat belt to set a good example. Unbuckled drivers are more likely to have unrestrained children in the car.
-Child Passenger Safety Week is September 15 through September 21, with the final day of the week (Sept. 21) recognized as National Seat Check Saturday. Throughout the week, at more than 600 events in 45 states across the country, certified child passenger safety technicians will inspect car seats and show parents and caregivers how to correctly install and use them. In most cases, this service is free of charge.

Parents and caregivers can visit SaferCar.gov/TheRightSeat to determine if your child is in the right seat for his or her age and size and to locate a car seat check event in your area.

Additional information on child passenger safety can be found in NHTSA's latest issue of SAFETY 1N NUM3ERS, an online monthly newsletter on hot topics in auto safety – including problem identification, people at risk and recommended practices and solutions to mitigate injury and death on our nation's roadways.
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General Motors
Study: 1 in 4 Parents Drive with Children Unsecured in Vehicle
New Safe Kids Worldwide report made possible by a $2 million GM Foundation grant

DETROIT – One in four parents and caregivers responding to a Safe Kids Worldwide survey said they have driven without making sure their children are safely secured in vehicles.

The report, funded as part of a $2 million grant from the General Motors Foundation, is based on a national online survey of 1,002 parents and caregivers of children ages 10 and under. It reveals that one in four parents admit to having driven without their child buckled up in a car seat or booster seat.

Safe Kids released "Buckle Up: Every Ride, Every Time," today as part of National Child Passenger Safety Week, which began Sunday and continues through September 21.
"As kids grow up, it can be easy to forget the importance of taking time to buckle up, especially on a quick or overnight trip," said Mike Robinson, GM vice president of Sustainability and Global Regulatory Affairs, and a GM Foundation board member. "Unfortunately, exceptions can lead to tragedies. The research findings underscore the importance of remaining vigilant about buckling up throughout a child's lifetime. There is no reason important enough to take the risk."

About Safe Kids Worldwide
Safe Kids Worldwide is a global network of organizations dedicated to providing parents and caregivers with practical and proven resources to protect kids from unintentional injuries, the number one cause of death to children in the United States. Throughout the world, almost one million children die of an injury each year, and almost all of these tragedies are preventable. Safe Kids works with an extensive network of more than 600 coalitions in the United States and in 23 countries to reduce traffic injuries, drownings, falls, burns, poisonings and more. Since 1988, Safe Kids has helped reduce the U.S. childhood death rate from unintentional injury by 55 percent. Working together, we can do much more for kids everywhere. Join our effort at safekids.org.

About General Motors Foundation
Since its inception in 1976, the GM Foundation has donated hundreds of millions of dollars to American charities, educational organizations and to disaster relief efforts worldwide. The GM Foundation focuses on supporting Education, Health and Human Services, Environment and Energy and Community Development initiatives, mainly in the communities where GM operates. Funding of the GM Foundation comes solely from GM. The last contribution to the GM Foundation was made in 2001. For more information, visit www.gm.com/gmfoundation.

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13 killed, including gunman, in Navy Yard rampage

WASHINGTON -

A defense-industry employee used his pass to get into the Washington Navy Yard and went on a deadly shooting rampage Monday, spraying bullets in the hallway and firing from a balcony on workers in an atrium below. Thirteen people were killed, including the gunman.

The motive for the assault — the deadliest shooting on a military installation in the U.S. since the tragedy at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009 — was a mystery, investigators said.

Mayor Vincent Gray said there was no indication it was a terrorist attack, but he added that the possibility had not been ruled out.

"This is a horrific tragedy," he said.

The onslaught at a single building at the highly secure Navy Yard unfolded about 8:20 a.m. in the heart of the nation's capital, less than four miles from the White House and two miles from the Capitol.

It put all of Washington on edge and raised the specter of another well-coordinated terrorist strike — or another attack from within, like Fort Hood.

The gunman, Aaron Alexis, a 34-year-old information technology employee and former Navy reservist whose last known address was in Fort Worth, Texas, died after a running gunbattle inside the building with police, investigators said.

He carried three weapons: an AR-15 assault rifle, a shotgun, and a handgun that he took from a police officer at the scene, according to two federal law enforcement officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation.

For much of the day, authorities said they were looking for a possible second attacker who may have been disguised in an olive-drab military-style uniform.

But by late Monday night, they said they were convinced the shooting was the work of a lone gunman, and the lockdown around the area was eased.

"We do now feel comfortable that we have the single and sole person responsible for the loss of life inside the base today," Washington Police Chief Cathy Lanier said.

President Barack Obama lamented yet another mass shooting in the U.S. that he said took the lives of American "patriots." He promised to make sure "whoever carried out this cowardly act is held responsible."

The FBI took charge of the investigation.

The attack came four years after Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Hasan killed 13 people at Fort Hood in what he said was an effort to save the lives of Muslims overseas. He was convicted last month and sentenced to death.

In addition to those killed at the Navy Yard, eight people were hurt, including three who were shot and wounded, according to the mayor. Those three were a police officer and two female civilians, authorities said. They were all expected to survive.

The dead ranged in age from 46 to 73, according to the mayor. A number of the victims were civilian employees and contractors, rather than active-duty military personnel, the police chief said.

At the time of the rampage, Alexis was an employee with The Experts, a company that was a Defense Department subcontractor on a Navy-Marine Corps computer project, authorities said.

Valerie Parlave, head of the FBI's field office in Washington, said Alexis had access to the Navy Yard as a defense contractor and used a valid pass.

Alexis had been a full-time Navy reservist from 2007 to early 2011, leaving as a petty officer third class, the Navy said. It did not say why he left. He had been an aviation electrician's mate with a unit in Fort Worth.

A convert to Buddhism who grew up in New York City, Alexis had had run-ins with the law over shooting incidents in 2004 and 2010 in Fort Worth and Seattle and was portrayed in police reports as seething with anger.

The Washington Navy Yard is a sprawling, 41-acre labyrinth of buildings and streets protected by armed guards and metal detectors, and employees have to show their IDs at doors and gates. More than 18,000 people work there.

The rampage took place at Building 197, the headquarters for Naval Sea Systems Command, which buys, builds and maintains ships and submarines. About 3,000 people work at headquarters, many of them civilians.

Witnesses on Monday described a gunman opening fire from a fourth-floor overlook, aiming down on people on the main floor, which includes a glass-walled cafeteria. Others said a gunman fired at them in a third-floor hallway.

Patricia Ward, a logistics-management specialist, said she was in the cafeteria getting breakfast.

"It was three gunshots straight in a row — pop, pop, pop. Three seconds later, it was pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, so it was like about a total of seven gunshots, and we just started running," Ward said.

Todd Brundidge, an executive assistant with Navy Sea Systems Command, said he and co-workers encountered a gunman in a long hallway on the third floor. The gunman was wearing all blue, he said.

"He just turned and started firing," Brundidge said.

Terrie Durham, an executive assistant with the same agency, said the gunman fired toward her and Brundidge.

"He aimed high and missed," she said. "He said nothing. As soon as I realized he was shooting, we just said, 'Get out of the building.'"

As emergency vehicles and law enforcement officers flooded the streets, a helicopter hovered, nearby schools were locked down and airplanes at Reagan National Airport were grounded so they would not interfere with law-enforcement choppers.

Security was tightened at other federal buildings. Senate officials shut down their side of the Capitol. The House remained open.

In the confusion, police said around midday that they were searching for two accomplices who may have taken part in the attack — one carrying a handgun and wearing a tan Navy-style uniform and a beret, the other armed with a long gun and wearing an olive-green uniform. Police said it was unclear if the men were members of the military.

But as the day wore, police dropped one person and then the other as suspects. As tensions eased, Navy Yard employees were gradually released from the complex, and children were let out of their locked-down schools.

Adm. Jonathan Greenert, chief of naval operations, was at the base at the time the shooting began but was moved unharmed to a nearby military installation.

Anxious relatives and friends of those who work at the complex waited to hear from loved ones.

Tech Sgt. David Reyes, who works at Andrews Air Force Base, said he was waiting to pick up his wife, Dina, who was under lockdown in a building next to where the shooting happened. She sent him a text message.

"They are under lockdown because they just don't know," Reyes said. "They have to check every building in there, and they have to check every room and just, of course, a lot of rooms and a lot of buildings."

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By ERIC TUCKER, BRETT ZONGKER and LOLITA C. BALDOR Associated Press

Associated Press writers Jesse Holland, Stacy A. Anderson, Brian Witte and Ben Nuckols in Washington contributed to this report.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/USNavy

The Naval Sea Systems Command's headquarters is the work place for about 3,000 people.

The organization is comprised of command staff, headquarters directorates, affiliated Program Executive Offices (PEOs) and numerous field activities. Together, we engineer, build, buy and maintain ships, submarines and combat systems that meet the Fleet's current and future operational requirements.

Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) is the largest of the Navy's five system commands. With a fiscal year budget of nearly $30 billion, NAVSEA accounts for one quarter of the Navy's entire budget. With a force of 60,000 civilian, military and contract support personnel, NAVSEA engineers, builds, buys and maintains the Navy's ships and submarines and their combat systems.

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Houston man struck and killed attempting to cross Hwy 31 W.

TYLER, TX (KLTV) -

A Houston man died after he was hit by a car on Highway 31 W., early Thursday morning.

According to authorities, a 38-year-old Houston man, who owned and operated an 18-wheeler, was looking for Alamo Patio around 6:42 a.m. when he parked his truck on the eastbound side of Highway 31 W. near Greenbriar Road, and crossed the highway on foot to see if he was in the right place. After realizing he was not at the correct location he attempted to go back across the highway to his 18-wheeler and was hit in the westbound lane by a female driving a silver Nissan Sentra.

The victim was dead when EMS arrived on the scene.

The driver of the Sentra will not be charged for hitting the victim because the victim was crossing illegally. He was also wearing dark clothing and it was still dark when he crossed.

However, the driver will be ticketed for driving without a license and for not properly securing one of her children in a car seat.

DPS, Tyler Police and Dixie Fire responded to the scene.

Copyright 2013 KLTV. All rights reserved.

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One killed, five injured in two vehicle accident in Angelina County

ANGELINA COUNTY, TX (KTRE) -

A Lufkin woman was killed and five people were taken to the hospital following a two-vehicle accident on Highway 103 East in Angelina County Sunday afternoon.

The accident happened on Highway 103 East, near the intersection of Watson-Loggins Lane.

According to Trooper Marc Slocum, a GMC Yukon was traveling eastbound on Highway 103 and was stopped to make a left turn onto Watson-Loggins lane, when a Dodge car also traveling eastbound ran into the back of the Yukon.

Three of the five passengers in the Yukon were transported via ambulance to a local hospital with minor injuries.

All three passengers in the Dodge were transported to a local hospital. The driver of the Dodge was taken by helicopter to ETMC Tyler where she was pronounced dead at 3:34 PM. DPS says she was wearing a seatbelt.

The two other passengers were also taken to a local hospital, one with serious injuries including a laceration to the head and a broken leg.

Names are not being released at this time.

Copyright 2013 KTRE. All rights reserved.

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