Sesame Street and Ford Kick Off 1998 'Buckle Up With Sesame Street' National Safety Tour
3 January 1998
Sesame Street and Ford Kick Off 1998 'Buckle Up With Sesame Street' National Safety TourDEARBORN, Mich., Jan. 3 -- Today, Ford Motor Company and Children's Television Workshop (CTW) announce their 1998 national multi-city safety tour designed to teach children and parents safe seating techniques and the importance of wearing safety belts. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates that 80 percent of children are improperly restrained when they ride in cars and trucks. Elmo, Rosita and Telly Monster will travel to cities across the United States to bring this fun and educational bilingual presentation to the public. "Buckle Up With Sesame Street" is one part of the three-year alliance between Ford and CTW, the producers of Sesame Street, to deliver automotive safety messages to children and parents in English and Spanish. The safety tour kicks off Friday, Jan. 2 with a press conference at 11:00 A.M., followed by free public performances on Jan. 2, 3 and 4 at the Fairlane Town Center in Dearborn. The show will also be presented to the public at the Detroit North American International Auto Show and the Charity Preview. Following the Detroit national kick off, "Buckle Up With Sesame Street" will travel to community centers, malls and auto shows in 15 major cities throughout the United States, including New York, Chicago, Washington D.C. and Los Angeles. Certified nurses trained in child safety will teach safe seating techniques and provide detailed child passenger safety seat demonstrations after each "Buckle Up With Sesame Street" presentation. Emergency Nurses CARE, a multi-faceted organization dealing with many aspects of injury prevention, has partnered with Ford to provide this service. "Ford believes it has a major responsibility to educate children and parents about automotive safety," said Helen Petrauskas, Ford Motor Company vice president, Environmental & Safety Engineering. "Buckle Up With Sesame Street" brings a safe riding and driving message so appealing that children and parents can't help but remember our songs about automotive safety." "Buckle Up With Sesame Street" will emphasize these key safety messages: -- Always wear a safety belt while driving or riding in a car or truck. -- Children are safest properly restrained in the back seat. -- Use approved child safety seats for children weighing less than 40 pounds. -- Children between 4 and 11 years of age and weighing between 40 and 90 pounds should use a booster cushion to help position the safety belt across the shoulder and hips. -- Rear-facing child seats always should be placed in the back seat of vehicles or in the front seat of trucks equipped with the passenger air bag switch in the "off" position. -- Seats should be moved as far back as possible from air bags. Educating parents and children will help reduce auto-related injuries and deaths. Facts highlighting the need for safety education are: -- Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for children from 5-15. -- Currently, 49 children have been killed by an inflating air bag while riding in the front seat of a vehicle. Almost all were not properly restrained. -- Child safety seats reduce the risk of fatal injury by 69 percent for infants and by 47 percent for toddlers. -- Increasing safety belt usage and having children properly restrained in the back seat is the most effective way to save U.S. lives. The three-year auto safety campaign is expected to reach millions of U.S. families through print and broadcast media materials, distributed in both English and Spanish, along with live character appearances. The Ford Windstar was chosen to help deliver automotive safety messages because it is equipped with more than 40 standard safety features and earned the five-star federal government crash-test rating for providing the best protection of any minivan. Windstar is the only minivan to receive this rating. The campaign includes television advertising for the 1998 Ford Windstar with Sesame Street characters delivering safety messages; custom published magazines delivered to over 2.6 million homes along with the Sesame Street Parents magazine; a safety content area on the Sesame Street web site; print and television public service announcements; and safety advice materials for children and parents distributed through Ford dealerships. "Helping children and families learn how to take safety measures in cars -- simple measures like buckling up and putting kids in the back seat -- is in keeping with a long tradition of Sesame Street, a place children love and trust," said David Britt, CTW president and CEO. "We're proud to have the opportunity to help and to deliver life-saving messages with Ford -- teaching kids how to take steps to respond safely in what can be scary situations." The combination of Ford and Sesame Street is a natural. CTW is the world's leader in educating and entertaining children, having reached more than 120 million children in more than 130 countries. It is estimated that 96 percent of all American children have seen Sesame Street by the age of 3. Sesame Street has a long history of celebrating cultural diversity and encouraging young children to learn more about their heritage. SOURCE Ford Motor Company and Children's Television Workshop