[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 73 (Thursday, May 24, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Page S5633]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. CORZINE:
  S. 956. A bill to amend title 23, United States Code, to promote the 
use of safety belts and child restraint systems by children, and for 
other purposes; to the Committee on Environment and Public Works.
  Mr. CORZINE. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the Child 
Passenger Safety Act, a bill to ensure that our children are adequately 
restrained and protected in cars. I am pleased to join my colleague 
Congressman Frank Pallone of New Jersey, who has introduced this 
legislation in the House and who has a longstanding interest in child 
safety. I also want to recognize Senator Peter Fitzgerald's commitment 
to child safety. His recent hearing on the subject of child passenger 
safety laws shed important light on the need to encourage States to 
strengthen their laws, and I look forward to working with him to 
address this issue.
  No child should be placed at risk by a simple trip to the local 
grocer. No child should be in danger on a family trip to the beach. No 
child should be placed in jeopardy in the daily ride to school. Yet 
unfortunately, every year almost 1,800 children aged 14 and under die 
in motor vehicle crashes, and more than 274,000 kids are injured. In 
fact, traveling in a car without a seatbelt is the leading killer of 
children in America.
  Despite this compelling statistic, the lack of reasonable safety 
measures for kids in this country is staggering. We know that children 
who are not restrained are far more likely to suffer severe injuries or 
even death in motor vehicle crashes, yet approximately 30 percent of 
children ages four and under ride unrestrained, and of those who do 
buckle up, four out of five children are improperly secured. Only five 
percent of four- to eight-year-olds ride in booster seats.
  Unfortunately, States have done too little to protect child 
passengers, a conclusion documented in a recent study of child car 
safety laws by the non-profit National Safe Kids Campaign. This report 
rated the effectiveness of each State's laws in protecting children 
from injury in traffic accidents, and twenty-four of the fifty States 
received a failing grade, while only two States, Florida and 
California, received grades higher than a C. My own State of New 
Jersey's laws were ranked dead last in the survey, because the State 
does not require any protection for children aged five or older riding 
in the back seat.
  Among the study's alarming findings: no State fully protects all 
child passengers ages 15 and under, no States require children aged 6-8 
to ride in booster seats, 34 States allow child passengers to rider 
unrestrained due to exemptions, and in many States, children are 
legally allowed to ride completely unrestrained in the back seat of a 
vehicle.
  Statistics like these make it clear that we need new Federal 
legislation. States are simply not doing enough to protect children in 
car accidents, especially older children. That is why today I am 
introducing a bill that would help ensure that all children are safely 
secured in cars, no matter where they live. The Child Passenger Safety 
Act would encourage States to enact laws requiring that children up to 
age eight are properly secured in a child car safety seat or booster 
seat appropriate to the child's age or size. The legislation also would 
encourage States to ensure that children up to the age 16 are 
restrained in a seatbelt, regardless of where they are sitting in the 
vehicle.
  States that do not meet these critical goals would be subject to the 
loss of Federal transportation funds, the same approach used to 
encourage States to establish strong drunk driving standards.
  We cannot sit idly by while so many of our children are exposed to 
unnecessary danger on our nation's roads. I ask my colleagues to join 
me in support of the Child Passenger Safety Act.
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