Child Passenger Safety Week Twitter Event

It’s time again for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) Child Passenger Safety Week featuring National Seat Check Saturday on September 24th.  To spread the word about the importance of child passenger safety and the resources available to parents, the Child Passenger Safety Twitter account has partnered with us to hold a Twitter Party! If you’re like most parents, including me, you probably have many questions about car seat safety ranging from installation to height/weight requirements.  Please join us to have all of your questions answered by our guest experts.

The fact is that each year, thousands of children are tragically injured and killed in automobile accidents.   The reason? Most parents and caregivers don’t realize that their children aren’t properly restrained in their car. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates that nearly 3 out of 4 car seats are not used correctly.

Is your child traveling safely?

Join us Wednesday, September 21st at 2 p.m. ET.  NHTSA experts will be available to offer information and insight on car seats and how to travel safely with children.  Use the #CPSweek tag to participate and follow along.

Want to learn more?

• Use this locator to find nearby car seat inspection stations on National Seat Check Saturday and throughout the year: http://www.nhtsa.gov/cps/cpsfitting/index.cfm
• Check out this resourceful page with instructional videos, handy informational flyers, and links to product ratings and recall lists.: http://childcarsafety.adcouncil.org/
• Don’t miss the new car seat recommendations for children: http://www.nhtsa.gov/DOT/NHTSA/Traffic%20Injury%20Control/Articles/Associated%20Files/4StepsFlyer.pdf
• Learn about the child passenger safety laws in your state: http://www.ghsa.org/html/stateinfo/laws/childsafety_laws.html

For more information on Child Passenger Safety Week visit http://www.nhtsa.gov/Safety/CPS or http://www.facebook.com/childpassengersafety.

Guest Experts

Jennifer Ryan

As AAA’s State Relations Manager, Jennifer Ryan is responsible for identifying trends and monitoring state legislative and regulatory proposals on a variety of traffic safety issues that affect AAA, its clubs and its more than 52 million members.  She also assists in implementing and coordinating national state-level legislative and public information campaigns.

Jennifer joined AAA more than a decade ago and currently manages AAA’s award-winning child passenger safety initiative – Seated, Safe & Secure.  The campaign aims to close loopholes in all 50 states’ occupant protection laws for children and to educate the public about the importance of properly restraining children.

Jennifer is a graduate of the University of Virginia and holds a Masters in Public Administration from George Mason University.  She is also a certified child passenger safety technician and mother of two daughters.

Alexander W. (Sandy) Sinclair

Sandy Sinclair is an experienced traffic safety and communications professional at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in Washington, D.C.

Mr. Sinclair, a Certified Child Passenger Safety Technician, has helped lead NHTSA’s efforts to protect the nation’s child passengers since 1999.  In this capacity, he promotes educational, research and law enforcement activities with public safety agencies, nonprofit advocacy organizations and private companies to reduce crash-related injuries among children and families.  In addition, he has helped shape the annual focus of Child Passenger Safety Week for more than ten years.

Early in his tenure at NHTSA, Sinclair managed the development and implementation of a new social marketing campaign to expand NHTSA’s Buckle Up America program, and oversaw a public service advertising campaign to prevent aggressive driving.  He has also been a NHTSA speechwriter, conducted media events, developed public service advertising campaigns with the Advertising Council and administered local demonstration programs to increase seat belt and car seat use among minority and low-income people.

Prior to joining NHTSA, Sinclair oversaw grassroots injury prevention programming and community coalition development for nearly a decade at the National Safe Kids Campaign in Washington, D.C.

A Southern California native, he worked to improve educational opportunities for minority and troubled youth in the greater Los Angeles area while earning his degree in political science at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1980. He also promoted primary health care as a Peace Corps Volunteer in an isolated mountain village in the northern Philippines in the mid-1980s.