Phoenix Children's Hospital Joins Forces with Cincinnati Children's and Toyota to Bring the Buckle Up For Life Program to Phoenix

Phoenix, Ariz., March 3, 2014 /3BL Media/ – Phoenix Children’s Hospital announced it partnered with Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and Toyota to bring the Buckle Up for Life program, a national injury prevention program, to Phoenix.
 
Building on a partnership that began in 2004 between one of the world’s leading children’s hospitals–Cincinnati Children’s–and the global automotive manufacturer–Toyota, the Buckle Up for Life program is designed to educate the entire family on critical car safety behaviors and provides free child car seats to families in need.
 
Car crashes are the number one killer of children in the United States between the ages 1 and 12.[i] Additionally, almost half of all African American (45%) and Hispanic (46%) children who died in crashes were not buckled up (2009–2010)[ii]. According to the Arizona Child Fatality Review Program, in 2012, 64 children died in Arizona in motor vehicle-related crashes–the number one factor being “lack of vehicle restraint”[iii].
 
“Proper use of seat belts, child safety seats and booster seats can significantly prevent vehicle-related injuries and fatalities,” said Sally Moffat, Director, Community Outreach and Injury Prevention at Phoenix Children’s Hospital. “We want to do more to protect children in vehicles and the Buckle Up for Life program will allow us to reach out to our neighboring communities in Phoenix and work closely with parents, caregivers and children–providing them with vital safety information in a way that leaves lasting impressions and saves lives.”
 
 
Toyota’s Multi-million Dollar Commitment Expands Buckle Up for Life 


As part of Toyota’s ongoing commitment to provide safety programs to passengers and drivers of all ages, the company announced in September that it increased funding of Buckle Up for Life by six million dollars over the next three years, allowing the program to expand from the current eight cities to a total of 17 cities by 2016. This investment is added to the more than two and a half million dollars of support Toyota has provided over the past nine years.  To-date Buckle Up for Life has had tremendous results, including providing more than 40,000 child car seats to families in need.  In one city alone, the use of proper child car seats by program participants nearly tripled.
 
In addition to partnering with Phoenix Children’s Hospital, this year Buckle Up for Life has also partnered with Cohen Children’s Medical Center (New York, NY) and Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital (Memphis, TN). They join successful programs already in place with local hospital partners in Chicago, Cincinnati, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Orange Country, CA, and San Antonio.
 
“At Toyota, we are strongly committed to the belief that driver and passenger safety is a universal need and something everyone should have access to,” said Latondra Newton, Chief Corporate Social Responsibility Officer of Toyota Motor North America Inc. “That is why we partnered with Cincinnati Children’s to create Buckle Up for Life and have increased our support.  We consider today to be both a celebration of all we have achieved and a call to action for the tremendous amount of work still to be done.”
 
Buckle Up for Life Website 
 
Beyond the community programs in cities across the U.S., the mobile-friendly, Buckle Up for Life website offers parents and caregivers easy to use tools and videos to help them identify and install the proper car seats for their child.

 
[i] http://www.safercar.gov/parents/CarSeats.htm# [ii] http://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/childpassengersafety/ [iii] http://www.azdhs.gov/phs/owch/pdf/cfr/20th-annual-child-fatality-review-report-nov-2013.pdf 
  ABOUT BUCKLE UP FOR LIFE     
Buckle Up for Life is a national, community-based injury prevention program, created in 2004 in a partnership between trauma specialists at Cincinnati Children’s and Toyota. The program’s main goal is to help save lives by educating communities about the number one cause of death of children under the age of 12 in the U.S.
 
Buckle Up for Life works with local hospitals, churches and other trusted community partners in cities across the United States to address the economic, cultural and language barriers around motor vehicle safety. Over a six-week period, the program’s medical experts and trained specialists work closely with participants of all ages and backgrounds to deliver vital safety information in an engaging, culturally-sensitive and memorable way. To date, the program has donated more than 40,000 child car seats to families in need and has made a significant impact, including tripling the proper use of child car seats among program participants in one city.
 
Through an expanded multi-year, multi-million dollar commitment from Toyota in 2013, Buckle Up for Life will continue to expand to new cities each year while leading a national movement to help elevate the conversation about this critical issue. To take the Buckle Up for Life pledge, learn more about the program and find child passenger safety resources, please visit www.buckleupforlife.org.
 
ABOUT CINCINNATI CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL MEDICAL CENTER 
Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center ranks third in the nation among all Honor Roll hospitals in U.S. News and World Report’s 2013 Best Children’s Hospitals ranking. It is ranked #1 for cancer and in the top 10 for nine of 10 pediatric specialties.
 
Cincinnati Children’s, a non-profit organization, is one of the top two recipients of pediatric research grants from the National Institutes of Health, and a research and teaching affiliate of the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.
 
The medical center is internationally recognized for improving child health and transforming delivery of care through fully integrated, globally recognized research, education and innovation.
 
Additional information can be found at www.cincinnatichildrens.org. Connect on the Cincinnati Children’s blog, via Facebook and on Twitter.

ABOUT PHOENIX CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL 
Phoenix Children’s Hospital is Arizona’s only children’s hospital that is ranked in U.S. News & World Report’s Best Children’s Hospitals. Phoenix Children's provides world-class inpatient, outpatient, trauma, emergency and urgent care to children and families in Arizona and throughout the Southwest. As one of the largest children’s hospitals in the country, Phoenix Children’s provides care across over 75 pediatric specialties. The Hospital is poised for continued growth in quality patient care, research and medical education. For more information about the hospital, visit www.phoenixchildrens.com.
 
About Toyota
Toyota (NYSE:TM), the world's top automaker and creator of the Prius, is committed to building vehicles for the way people live through our Toyota, Lexus and Scion brands.  Over the past 50 years, we’ve built more than 25 million cars and trucks in North America, where we operate 14 manufacturing plants and directly employ more than 40,000 people.  Our 1,800 North American dealerships sold more than 2.5 million cars and trucks in 2013 – and about 80 percent of all Toyota vehicles sold over the past 20 years are still on the road today.  
 
Toyota partners with philanthropic organizations across the country, with a focus on education, safety and the environment.  As part of this commitment, we share the company’s extensive know-how garnered from building great cars and trucks to help community organizations and other nonprofits expand their ability to do good. To date, Toyota has contributed more than $700 million to nonprofits in the U.S.  For more information about Toyota, visit www.toyotanewsroom.com.  

Media Contacts

Stacy Dillier (Phoenix Children’s Hospital)
602-933-0824
sdillier@phoenixchildrens.com
 
Kara Woroniec (Alison + Partners)
623-201-5575
Kara@allisonpr.com