Endorsement for Enforcement: Ford Stands Up for Children's Rights
23 November 1998
Endorsement for Enforcement: Ford Stands Up for Children's RightsWASHINGTON, Nov. 20 -- Ford Motor Company is fully committed to the national campaign this Thanksgiving holiday to protect children by stepping up enforcement of child passenger safety laws. More than 5,000 law enforcement agencies across the country will conduct the second 1998 wave of Operation ABC Mobilization: America Buckles Up Children. This will be the largest ever crackdown on drivers who do not buckle up children. Ford joins the more than 1,000 organizations nationwide that endorse this intensive, 50-state lifesaving effort. "Although only law enforcement officers can write the tickets, Ford stands firmly behind the lifesaving message each ticket delivers," said Jac Nasser, Ford Motor Company CEO-elect. "Ford is not just a manufacturer of cars. We are also parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins who want to protect our children. The Operation ABC Mobilization is the kind of broad-based community movement our country needs to help save both children's lives and the adults who take care of them." While officers and safety advocates have been educating drivers about the benefits of child safety seats and seat belts for years, the Operation ABC Mobilization takes the next step. It is a serious educational effort directed at drivers who place children at deadly risk by leaving them completely unrestrained. The Thanksgiving Operation ABC Mobilization is based on an extremely successful Mobilization last Memorial Day. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's observational surveys before and after that Memorial Day Mobilization showed that six million more people had buckled up. Additional surveys by the National Safety Council showed a 35 percent drop in fatalities during that Memorial Day weekend. "The impact of the last Operation ABC Mobilization clearly illustrates that high visibility enforcement works," said Nasser. "This is why Ford is giving its official 'Endorsement for Enforcement.' We hope the Mobilization's success will be expanded this Thanksgiving and will save even more lives. The message is clear: the law requires that children be buckled up at all times. No exceptions. No excuses."