News

Saving Lives Recieves Grant for Child Passenger Safety 

Saving Lives Inc. 501(c)3 non-profit organization is pleased to announce a grant award for Child Passenger Safety Equipment from the Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety and Security’s Highway Safety Division (EOPSS-HSD).  The $15,000 grant award will enable Saving Lives Inc. to purchase child safety seats and related equipment to increase the safety of children traveling on Massachusetts roads.  Saving Lives Inc. is among twenty-four organizations across the Commonwealth selected for an award.

Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death among children ages 3 to 14 in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control.  Saving Lives Inc., together with EOPSS-HSD, focuses on educating parents and caregivers on the best practices related to the selection and proper installation of child safety seats. 

Specific goals for the project include encouraging parents to position children in rear-facing seats to the upper weight limits allowed by the child safety seat manufacturer, encouraging the use of booster seats for children who have outgrown a convertible seat but who are less than 4’7” and 100 pounds, and ensuring that recalled, expired or otherwise unsafe seats are destroyed.

Sheila Burgess, Highway Safety Division Director, explains “Three out of four child safety seats are not properly installed and even a sudden stop can seriously injure a child who is not properly secured in the right type of child safety seat.  We are pleased to increase child passenger safety through this grant.”

Saving Lives Inc. will work with community partners in Billerica, Brockton, Chelmsford, Chelsea, Dracut, Dunstable, Everett, Lawrence, Lowell, Malden, Melrose,  Reading, Stoneham, Tewksbury, Tyngsborough, Wakefield, and Westford in its efforts to improve the correct use of child safety seats.

The mission of the EOPSS-HSD is to reduce fatalities, injuries and economic losses resulting from motor vehicle crashes on the Commonwealth’s roadways.  The HSD is part of the Office of Grants & Research under the Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety and Security. HSD administers the federally-funded highway grant programs of the EOPSS.

For more information about the Saving Lives Program Inc., contact Kym Craven at 978-877-6002 or info@thesavinglivesprogram.org to find out more about the efforts of HSD and child passenger safety visit www.mass.gov/childsafetyseats.  Additional information about traffic safety programs appears on the National Highway Traffic Safety Adminstration website at www.nhtsa.gov.