Governor announces Wisconsin will receive nearly $600,000 in federal funding for child passenger safety iniatiaves

September 28, 2007

Gov. Jim Doyle announced today that Wisconsin will receive $587,816 in federal funding to help protect more children from injuries and deaths while they ride in motor vehicles. With the enactment of a child booster seat law, signed by Governor Doyle in 2006 as part of his Kids First Initiative, Wisconsin became eligible for the Child Safety and Child Booster Seat Incentive Grant Program from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The federal grant, which will be administered by the Wisconsin State Patrol Bureau of Transportation Safety, may be used for:

• Purchase and distribution of child passenger safety seats and booster seats to low-income families.
• Enforcement of child passenger safety laws.
• Training and public education on the use and proper installation of child passenger safety seats and booster seats.

"Children outgrow their clothes, toys and other things very quickly, but they don't outgrow the need to be protected while riding in a motor vehicle. Traffic crashes are the number one killer of children ages 2 to 14, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration," Governor Doyle said. "Ensuring that children are properly restrained in vehicles can be a matter of life and death, and this federal grant will be used to help Wisconsin families better protect their young children from the tragic effects of traffic crashes."

In the grant award letter to Gov. Doyle, NHTSA Administrator Nicole R. Nason wrote, "We are confident that future reductions in crashes, injuries and deaths will result from the highway safety programs you are implementing. The actions that Wisconsin has taken to address this serious problem are to be commended."

For more information and answers to questions about child passenger safety, contact the Wisconsin Information Network for Safety at the following toll-free number: 1-866-511-9467 (WINS). More information about the proper use of booster seats is available on the Web at: www.boosterseat.gov  and www.dot.wisconsin.gov/safety/vehicle/child/index.htm.

For more information, contact:
Don Hagen
(608) 266-7520, donald.hagen@dot.state.wi.us

Dennis Hughes
(608) 267-9075, dennis.hughes@dot.state.wi.us