Our Mission is Safety
The National Safety Council eliminates preventable deaths at work, in homes and communities, and on the road through leadership, research, education and advocacy. Donate to our cause.
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Making a difference in the lives of millions.
June 2018
Motor-vehicle deaths are on the rise and they’re putting our most vulnerable passengers at risk.
Car crashes are a leading cause of death for children, killing 1,346 Americans under the age of 15 in 2015. One of the best things parents can do to protect their children is to properly secure them in the car.
Children need special protection in vehicles to keep them safe in the event of a crash. When used correctly, car seats, booster seats and seat belts help protect your child, but using the wrong type of restraint could put your child at serious risk during a crash. Fortunately, the National Child Passenger Safety Board (NCPSB) has resources to help.
The NCPSB oversees and maintains the curriculum for training child passenger safety technicians (CPSTs), who educate parents and caregivers on how to properly use their children’s car seats. Technicians provide personalized instruction about how to properly install a car seat in a vehicle, as well as how to properly secure a child in the car seat. NSC has managed the NCPSB since it was established 20 years ago. Since then, more than 165,000 dedicated individuals have successfully completed the national certification course and helped protect children on the road.
Parents and caregivers can work with a nationally certified child passenger safety technician one on one, at inspection stations or at community events held nationwide throughout the year.
Before you drive with a child in the car, you should:
Transportation is a part of everyday life for parents, but the risks to their children don’t have to be. Take the time to be sure your child is properly secured and keep them safe on every ride.
Brooke Ice, age 19, is a Firefighter and Emergency Medical Technician for Cherokee County Fire and Emergency Services, in Georgia. Brooke has always been active in volunteering in the community. She has served with the Girl Scouts of America, Boy Scouts of America, Safe Kids, and as a Volunteer Firefighter with Waleska Community Fire Dept. Brooke’s father and mother are both full-time Firefighters with Metro Atlanta Fire Departments.
In March 1999, Brooke was a 10-month-old toddler restrained in a rear-facing convertible car seat when her family traveled in their personal vehicle. Brooke’s mom, Michele, attended a Safe Kids Cobb County luncheon, and upon hearing of her changing from a rear-facing infant only car seat to a convertible seat, child passenger safety technicians (CPST) asked if they could inspect her car seat. After 45 minutes of correcting misuses and showing Michele how to properly install Brooke’s car seat, they went on their way.
Two weeks later, on April 1, 1999, a van ran a stop sign and hit Michele’s car on the driver’s side causing a 29” intrusion in the driver’s door. Michele was instantly knocked unconscious with multiple life threatening injuries. Her vehicle rotated multiple times before resting on the side of the road. Brooke, properly restrained in her rear-facing car seat, did not have a scratch on her.
Brooke’s goal now that she is a firefighter is to become a Child Passenger Safety Technician so she can help educate others about the importance of properly securing children in vehicles and helping to protect precious passengers like her. Brooke continues to share her experience through public speaking engagements such as at the 2017 National Safe Kids Worldwide conference, state child passenger safety conferences and through the NSC Survivor Advocate program.
Observed annually in June, National Safety Month focuses on reducing leading causes of injury and death at work, on the road and in our homes and communities. You can participate by taking just one step to help protect your friends, neighbors and loved ones. The National Safety Council offers free promotional materials and family safety activities to use during National Safety Month.
Download free materials at nsc.org/nsm.
The National Safety Council is grateful to Walgreens for investing in programs to combat opioid misuse. Walgreens has committed to expand its programs to combat opioid abuse through medication disposal kiosks (more than 270 tons of unused medications have been collected and disposed of since 2016) and through work to make naloxone, a life-saving opioid antidote, available without requiring a prescription at its pharmacies in most states.
In 2018, Walgreens and NSC will partner to learn more about teens and their first exposure to opioids. Research results will inform the solutions Walgreens and NSC will build together to combat this epidemic. Walgreens was a co-sponsor of the NSC Prescribed to Death Memorial in Atlanta at the RX Summit in April 2018. Thank you to Walgreens for eliminating preventable death in our lifetime.
NSC has partnered with tix4cause, a social enterprise with an event ticket platform that turns every ticket purchase into a benefit for a cause at no extra cost.
Have tickets you can’t use? If you have tickets to an event you can’t attend, donate them through Tix4Cause and choose National Safety Council so your seats won’t go to waste. On purchase NSC receives 100% of the ticket purchase price and you receive a tax acknowledgement letter from NSC recognizing your ticket donation. Learn More.
Looking for Tickets? And when you buy exchange (non-donated) tickets at Tix4Cause.com, for sporting events, concerts, theater, etc., National Safety Council receives 7.5% of the ticket purchase price when selected as the cause of your choice. It's that easy to have your ticket purchase do good.
Where you buy your tickets really does matter so make Tix4Cause.com your first stop and choose National Safety Council as your cause.