AAA projects that if all children were properly buckled, more than 5,200 children 15 years of age and under would be saved over a ten-year period.

AAA conducted an analysis based on research from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration which shows proper child restraint systems can reduce fatal injuries to infants by 71 percent to children 1 to 4 years by 54 percent, and to those age 5-15 by 45 percent.

To help move the nation toward complete compliance of proper child-restraint use, AAA launched a multi-year national education and advocacy campaign to help reduce the leading cause of death for children 1-15 years of age as part of its year-long centennial celebration.

The AAA campaign -- "Seated, Safe and Secure" -- will focus on three major areas. They are: enhancing inadequate child passenger safety laws in the vast majority of states, changing the behavior of parents through a massive public awareness campaign, and letting the public know that it can use AAA as a resource for its child passenger safety needs.

AAA also sent an open letter to all major auto manufacturers calling on them to encourage their dealerships to have a trained safety seat technician on staff and to offer affordable, user-friendly child passenger seat options in more models.

"Although it may be difficult to achieve safety seat compliance 100 percent of the time, the closer we move toward that goal, the more young lives we save and the more we lessen the enormous emotional and financial costs of these fatalities," said Robert L. Darbelnet, AAA president and CEO.

A key "Seated Safe and Secure" campaign goal is to have legislation passed in every state and the District of Columbia by 2005 to close the loopholes in current occupant protection laws to ensure every child is properly restrained up to age 18.

AAA hopes to duplicate the tremendous state-by-state effort that was responsible for helping to pass teen driving laws in 47 states within three years.

In a nationwide survey of AAA members, 81 percent said they supported legislation that would strengthen their state's child passenger safety laws. In addition, 78 percent of members who transport children indicated they would favor a law in their state that would allow a police officer to pull over a driver for not having a passenger under the age of 16 properly restrained in their vehicle.

The survey also revealed that 61 percent of respondents said they were aware they could attend a car safety seat check to make sure their seat was installed properly, but only 21 percent had actually attended such an event.

"It is imperative that we educate parents on the importance of properly buckling their children in a child restraint or booster seat," said Darbelnet. "The safest child restraint system is one that a parent will use effectively and consistently."

The survey is based on a national telephone survey of 1,600 AAA members and has a plus or minus rate of 2 percent.

As part of its education campaign, AAA also released to TV stations a 30-second public service announcement that features Academy-Award winning actress Marlee Matlin, who is also the mother of two young children.

In addition to its role as the national certifying agency for NHTSA's Child Passenger Safety Program, AAA has launched the web site aaasafejourney.org to provide members and the public with instant access to child safety material.

In clinics held nationwide by AAA to instruct parents on proper child restraint use, misuse rates at some clinics ran as high as 90 percent.

"We hope to raise awareness of the misuse problem by letting the public know that it can rely on AAA as a resource to find a safety seat check, locate a child safety seat technician or answer any questions about child passenger safety," Darbelnet said.