STLtoday - Mo-based group launches kids safety program
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Mo-based group launches kids safety program
This 2000 photo shows Michele Struttmann in front of the gravesite for her son, Harrison, at St. Francis Borgia Cemetery in cheap car Washington, Mo. (P-D)
By Kim Bell
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
09/05/2008
A Missouri couple whose son was killed by a runaway van are behind a new nationwide safety campaign to keep kids safe around cars.
The Zero Seconds campaign, launched today, aims to teach parents to never, ever leave a child unattended inside or near a car -- not even for one second. The campaign consists of public service announcements, posters, magnets and fliers to spread the word.
The program uses as its backdrop the deadly incidents that have happened in St. Louis and elsewhere: Children run over by parents backing out of driveways. Tots who overheated and died after being left in hot cars. Kids left in running cars taken by car thieves.
"Many people car clubs say that can never happen to me, but what people need to be asking is, 'How can I ensure this won't happen to me?'" said Terrill Struttmann of Villa Ridge, Mo., who is executive director of the nonprofit Harrison's Hope. "This can happen to anyone. When you're dealing with kids in a vehicle, you need to be extra-vigilant."
Struttmann and his wife, Michele, started Harrison's Hope in Cold Case Devil S Music Ending honor of their son, 2-year-old Harrison Struttmann, who was killed in 1998 ohio used car dealer when a van ran him over at Rennick used car dealer houston Riverfront Park on the Missouri River car rental in england in Washington, Mo. The van had been car seat best safety left running with two boys -- ages 2 and 3 -- playing inside. The boys managed to slip the van into drive. It hopped a curb and plowed into Harrison and Michele.
TO FIND OUT MORE
Watch a short "Zero Seconds" video
A Live Country Music list of recent U.S. deaths involving kids in cars
The Zero Seconds campaign is an effort to prod parents and babysitters to think about such things. One poster car wash child shows a mpg car child playing with a car's gear shift: "A car is not a playground," the sign value a classic car implores. Another poster of an infant left in a rental car company hot car says, "It is not worth the risk." Organizers also want to empower kids to speak up, to never let a caregiver leave them alone in or near a car.
Next week, the group plans a presentation to about 500 high school girls at Incarnate Word Academy, a Catholic school in Bel-Nor. High schoolers are a perfect audience for new car the chandler classic car show message, find used car dealers Struttmann says. Whether they're babysitting or caring for younger siblings, the teens imperial car leasing might not be aware of the dangers. The school principal, indiana pa car dealer Randy Berzon-Mikolas, said the tragic stories Bluetooth Music Headset in the news bring home the point how important it is not to leave a child unattended.
"You just don't know in the minute you're outside your vehicle what car gps navigation systems can happen," the principal said. "We just need to make our students more aware. We have a lot of car collectors students who do babysitting and have enterprise car rental kona siblings and (work as) a nanny in the summer. It will be incredibly beneficial for our students to hear az prescott car tour these stories.
"And black book car values I suspect if our students were more aware," car inspection checklist the principal added, "they could pass along the information to their own parents."
Struttmann said there's no central database nationwide that collects statistics on these types of incidents. But his group gathers news stories from George Harrison Sheet Music Horns around the country. Based on those accounts, Harrison's Hope has documented 352 incidents and 72 deaths involving kids left in or around vehicles this year alone. Since 2002, the group has found more than 900 deaths.
Some of the horrific cases have happened locally. For instance, last Florida Auto Insurance Quotes Car Insurance summer, a 7-month-old girl died after being left in a sweltering car on the Washington University School of Medicine by her parents. They busy working couple had started a new routine that day and thought the other parent was taking the baby to daycare. A few weeks later, a baby in Bowling Green, Mo., suffered a similar fate. The father car craft magazine of a 4-month-old girl how to paint your car forgot to take her to daycare and left her in a hot car for at least six hours while he was at work.
"Busy parents can get distracted, and it's scary to think that this does happen," Struttmann said. "It's not uneducated parents who don't love their children. It's very loving parents this has happened to. We just need to drive home the point that, when it comes to jaguar muscle car your children and your cars, many children are dying under 100 percent preventable circumstances."
A video by the group asks, "Were you one of the millions of near-misses that happen every year? Or were you one of the tragedies? Unfortunately, it only takes a second for an incident to happen."
The Zero Seconds kit, sold for $17.25, includes an eight-minute video and information for educators, community leaders, parents, service clubs and the media. The kit includes pledge cards for parents to promise such things as to hold their child's hand in a parking lot and for kids to promise never to play near an unattended vehicle collector car trader and to speak up if they're ever left alone by car sales resume sample a babysitter or other caregiver.
Harrison's Hope, a nonprofit based in Washington, Mo., used to be called Kids in Cars. Arobics Music Captain Jack Terrill Struttmann is a former business account executive with Verizon Wireless who left his job car computers in 2001 to start the agency with his wife. They have lobbied for legislation nationally for people to be prosecuted if pedal car they knowingly leave a child unattended in a vehicle. When Harrison was killed, only six states had such laws. Now, 14 states have them.
The Struttmanns have one son, recaro car seat Peyton, who is now 6.
For more information on the program, go to www.zeroseconds.org or graco legacy car seat www.harrisonshope.org
kbell@post-dispatch.com 314-340-8115
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Incidents nationwide of children left unattended electric car motor in or near vehicles, often with tragic results. Incidents include children found dead in car trunks, being run over by parents, caught in power windows or taken in car thefts.
Source: Harrison's Hope, Washington, Mo.
Harrison Struttmann, new car dealership florida killed in 1998
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