Press Release – Embargoed until 00:01, Monday 6th September, 2010:
ROAD SAFETY GB HATCHES NATION-WIDE IN-CAR CHILD SAFETY SEAT CAMPAIGN
More Than Eight Out Of Ten Child Safety Seats Across The UK Are Incorrectly Fitted - Good Egg Guide To Highlight The Danger To Parents and Carers
Road Safety GB (RSGB), the road safety organisation that represents over 200 Local Authority Road Safety Teams across the UK, launched a major national road safety initiative today.
The Good Egg Campaign is designed to ensure that babies and children are properly restrained whilst travelling in the car, by showing parents and carers the correct way to fit in-car child safety seats. This is important because:
- An unrestrained child can be killed in an impact with speeds as low as 5mph.
- If properly restrained a child is three times less likely to sustain a head injury in a collision than an unrestrained child.
- In 2008 more than 5,000 children under twelve were injured as car passengers on British roads.
Launching today, Monday 6th September 2010, at the Rennys Lane Tesco in Durham, road safety professionals will run an educational clinic demonstrating how to fit various types of safety seats and will be distributing copies of the initiatives handbook, 'The Good Egg Guide to In-Car Child Safety'. Similar clinics will be taking place across the UK throughout the autumn.
Alan Kennedy, the Chair of Road Safety GB said:
"We're really excited to be able to announce the launch of Road Safety GB's national campaign. Children and infants are our most vulnerable road users and an ill-fitted car-seat can mean the difference between life and death. The campaign that launches today, Monday 6th of September, will run throughout England this autumn, and over this period we look forward to helping mums, dads and other carers make sure that their children are safe in the car.
"With sponsorship by Arnold Clark Automobiles together with the support of Local Authorities, Fire and Rescue Services and other key partners; the Good Egg Campaign will help to raise awareness of the risks to children being placed in car seats that are not fitted safely. The Good Egg Campaign has been running in Scotland since 2001 and has helped reduce the number of in car child casualties significantly. By being a 'Good Egg' parents and carers will be helping to keep their little ones safe in the car."
Sir Arnold Clark, Chairman and Chief Executive of Arnold Clark Automobiles said: "We're very pleased to sponsor the Good Egg Campaign and help make a difference in reducing the number of child casualties on the roads. Parents and carers often don't realise that different cars require different types of safety seat and often think that their child is properly protected when this may not be the case.
"The Good Egg clinics ensure that all attendees get authoritative advice on the best type of in-car child safety seat for their vehicle and the proper method of installation. The clinics will also distribute the Good Egg Guide, a manual which provides detailed take-home guidance on all the important issues relating to in-car safety seats."
The Good Egg clinics will be supported by a national advertisement campaign on bus rears across England. Parents will get the chance to win child car seats by logging on to www.protectchildgb.org.uk and completing the on-line survey.
It is intended that the Good Egg Campaign will become an annual event and it will run initially for four weeks, with car seat clinics undertaken over several months this autumn. Parents and carers can find out where their nearest clinic is by logging onto the Road Safety GB Good Egg website www.protectchildgb.org.uk.
-End-
For more information and to arrange interviews or request case studies please contact Max Howard at SKV Communications max.howard@skvcommunications.co.uk, 0161 838 7770, to get in touch with Arnold Clark please contact heidi.brown@arnoldclark.co.uk, 0141 433 3968
Notes to the Editor:
- For more information about Good Egg please visit www.protectchildgb.org.uk
- For graphics of the Bus Rears to support the campaign launch please contact Doug Sheriffs at Dynamic Advertising Group on 0131 248 3609 / 07595 821 043
- Interviews with Good Egg partners and stakeholders can be arranged by contacting Max Howard.
- Statistics sources include:
- 'Eight Out Of Ten Child Safety Seats Across The UK Are Incorrectly Fitted' - Research from a number of safety seat clinics including four held in Walsall, 2010, which revealed that out of over 100 seats checked only 14 required no adjustments and 12 were incompatible or condemned.
- 'If properly restrained a child is three times less likely to sustain a head injury in a collision than an unrestrained child.' – Transport Research Laboratory April 1996
- 'In 2008 more than 5,000 children under twelve were injured as car passengers on British road.' – Reducing Road Casualties GB 2008.
- Arnold Clark Automobiles is Europe's largest car dealer group. Named after its founder, Sir Arnold Clark who started the business in 1954 after leaving the RAF as a motor mechanic instructor and being unable to find employment, the company has grown from a small showroom on Park Road in Glasgow's West End to a company that now employs over 8,000 employees across over 145 branches nationwide. The family-run business now retails approximately 200,000 vehicles per year and generates an annual turnover of over £2 billion, it represents 19 car franchises and has developed its own car supermarket brand that offers nearly new and used cars at incredibly low prices. In 2004, Sir Arnold received a Knighthood in the New Year Honors list in recognition of his services to the Motor Industry and his contribution to the Scottish community.The Arnold Clark Group has won numerous awards, Deliotte Sunday Times Fast Track 100 Largest Privately Owned Company in Scotland, Automotive Magazine Best Large Dealer Group, Five Star Award from the British Safety Council, The Guardian Best Rental Company.
