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LOS ANGELES — Safe Kids Buckle Up, the child passenger safety program of Safe Kids USA sponsored by General Motors and Chevrolet, has reached a milestone no other program can claim: one million child safety seats checked for proper installation.

“A Safe Kids child seat inspection provides hands-on training for parents and caregivers,” said Mitch Stoller, president and CEO of Safe Kids Worldwide.” At about 30 minutes per inspection, the milestone we are celebrating today represents more than 500,000 volunteer hours — or 57 years of one person working around the clock. Our thousands of volunteers are the backbone of Safe Kids Buckle Up and they work tirelessly to help make sure the children who come to a checkup event are safer when they leave than when they arrived.”

The one millionth seat will be checked today at an event at the Los Angeles Sports Arena. The event is open to the public and 150 children from the Los Angeles Urban League Head Start and State Preschool are scheduled to have their seats inspected. Nearly 200 more car seat checkup events are being held through the weekend at Chevrolet and other GM dealerships, and at community locations around the country in celebration of the millionth seat milestone.

“Keeping all children safer in vehicles is one of our top priorities,” said Nicole R. Nason, administrator for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. “Programs like Safe Kids Buckle Up have helped to change the culture of car seat safety in the United States and have been essential in protecting our most precious passengers.”

Significant progress has been made since 1997 when the program checked its first car seat. Statistics from NHTSA show a 25 percent drop in vehicle crash fatalities for children under the age of 5 from 1997 to 2006 (the latest year with available data). 

More good news has been seen in restraint use. Car seats have saved the lives of an estimated 3,800 children ages 0 to 4 from 1997 to 2006. Of the children in fatal crashes where restraint use was known, 46 percent were unrestrained in 1997.  This number decreased to 25 percent in 2006. 

“Safe Kids USA and General Motors have been leaders in child occupant protection,” said Mark V. Rosenker, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board. “As we have said before, the Safe Kids Buckle Up program has given families across the country the peace of mind that comes with knowing how to properly secure their children in a vehicle. Checking a million seats through the Safe Kids Buckle Up program has likely resulted in hundreds of lives being saved because of the proper use of car seats and booster seats.”

The partnership between Safe Kids USA and General Motors is the longest-running corporate/nonprofit program of its kind, addressing safety for children in and around vehicles. In 2004, Chevrolet became the lead GM brand for the relationship. Safe Kids has more than 600 state and local coalitions and chapters, staffed mostly by volunteers, who provide injury prevention programs to communities throughout the country free of charge.

“Chevy dealers have become leaders in child safety as they work with Safe Kids Buckle Up to bring this lifesaving program to their communities,” said Ed Peper, North America vice president, Chevrolet. “We know a million seats isn’t the finish line, but it’s a very good start.”

Safe Kids Buckle Up has expanded from child safety seat checkups to include a variety of programs to help keep children safer in and around vehicles. The program has distributed approximately 365,000 seats to families in need, deployed a fleet of more than 130 Chevrolet Mobile Car Seat Checkup Vans, established more than 450 permanent child safety seat inspection stations, created a new Automotive Safety Patch program with Chevrolet and the Cub Scouts, and launched the Spot the Tot and Never Leave Your Child Alone programs across the country. The program also works to upgrade state child passenger safety laws. All together, the Safe Kids Buckle Up program activities have touched nearly 15 million people.

“Since the beginning, our goal has been to reach parents, caregivers and children across the country,” said Rod Gillum, GM vice president, corporate responsibility and diversity. “We are proud to see Safe Kids Buckle Up reach this important milestone, while recognizing that the job of protecting children must continue to be a priority. Safe Kids is a great partner, and their experts have made Safe Kids Buckle Up a truly dynamic program.”

Auburn Hills, Mich. - “Concept to reality” has become a term that epitomises the Chrysler Group design philosophy, and many observers are hoping that it will apply to the company’s concept vehicles for 2007.

Chrysler Group’s latest concept vehicles clearly demonstrate a design tradition that has become a key strength of the company: an ability to design the coolest-of-cool concepts, which are as relevant as they are innovative.

This approach started with the Frankfurt Motor Show reveal of the Lamborghini-engined, cab forward-styled, four-door Chrysler Portofino concept sedan in 1987. Almost 20 years and more than 100 concepts later, this continuous development has helped Chrysler Group reinvent and maintain its reputation as a car company driven by design and engineering.

Concept vehicles have two major roles for the Chrysler Group: they showcase to management, the media and the public the potential future design direction for Chrysler Group cars and trucks, and they help to attract the best young designers in the world into its design studios.

Chrysler Group’s concept vehicle program allows designers to test new colors, features, vehicle size and segments. Concepts can also be showcases for new design cues, which often find their way into production on future vehicles – even if the entire concept vehicle does not.

Importantly, the designs that are revealed to acclaim and accolade at auto shows around the world each year are not just built to look good. That is where the company’s design-to-reality tradition really kicks in.

Not only does Chrysler Group produce concept vehicles that can actually be driven – especially by journalists for feedback and publicity purposes – but many ultimately become production vehicles within a few years of their first reveal. The latest example is the Dodge Challenger. First revealed as a concept at the 2006 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit, it was announced that the Challenger will go into production in 2008.

According to Trevor Creed, Senior Vice President – Product Design Office, Chrysler Group, “We’ve always said at Chrysler that we don’t just produce concepts for fun. We have proved year after year that our concepts are innovative and relevant.

“Our track record shows that many Chrysler Group concepts, and several of the design features showcased on our concept vehicles, have gone into production,” he added. “While we can’t say yet if any of our 2007 concepts will eventually be seen in our showrooms, they clearly hint at exciting and innovative future design directions that could find their way into our company’s products.”

2007 Concept Vehicles

This year’s group of concept vehicles includes one for each of the Chrysler Group’s brands. Combining refinement, function and style, the Chrysler Nassau concept explores a new expression of the Chrysler brand. First shown at the 2007 NAIAS, the four-door, four-passenger Nassau luxury coupe is a more emotional and artistic articulation of what it means to be a Chrysler.

The Jeep® Trailhawk, which also had its premiere at the 2007 NAIAS, merges the spectrum of the Jeep brand by combining the core off-road features of the new Jeep Wrangler Unlimited with the refined sophistication of an all-new on-road, open-air concept vehicle, providing a unique and fresh expression for Jeep.

The Dodge Demon is a compact, nimble “roadster with an attitude” – a perfect balance of classic sports car proportion and simplicity blended with modern design and performance. The vehicle is designed to be an affordable Dodge sports car that merges brand cues of bold design and powerful performance with an open-air “fun-to-drive” attitude. This concept had its debut at the 2007 Geneva Motor Show.

Bridgestone Europe NV/SA has announced that it will increase prices on all of its tyre brands and categories. It will apply in all European countries. The increases are between 5% and 8% (8% and 12% in UK and Northern Ireland). The new prices will take effect in each market in coming few months.
According to Gerry Duffy, Vice President Sales & Marketing of Bridgestone Europe, “Even after we increased our prices earlier this year, the raw material prices continue to increase beyond our expectation. The recent increase in the cost of commodities such as oil, natural rubber, iron ore and others heavily affects the costs of almost all the raw materials we consume. As its financial impact is so huge and hard to offset only by our internal efforts, we have to recover some of those costs by this price increase”.

- Promoting Eco-Conscious Driving Around the World -

Bridgestone Group Action Plan
1.	Enlightenment activities within the Group The Bridgestone Group will promote activities to increase awareness and understanding of green motoring to all employees within the Group. These environmental educational activities will then be expanded to the families and friends through the employees.
2.	Enlightenment activities for drivers In conjunction with automobile clubs, the Bridgestone Group will deploy activities to increase environmental awareness and understanding through its sales network and various events.

Environmental conservation is one of the most critical issues of our time. The Bridgestone group has been expanding and enhancing its efforts to help preserve a safe environment for future generations. This collaboration with the FIA is an excellent opportunity to strengthen the global reach of Bridgestone’s environmental initiative.

Notes:
1.	World Environment Day was established to commemorate the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment initially held in Stockholm, Sweden on June 5, 1972. Every year, the United Nations has set June 5 as World Environment Day to raise awareness and discuss ways to educate people about environmental conservation.
2.	The FIA Foundation is an UK-based international charitable foundation created in 2001 with a $300 million donation from the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA). Its mission is to conduct research and promotional campaigns in areas related to road safety, the environment and development of the automobile industry. The FIA, which is a non-profit federation of motoring organizations from all over the world, is the governing body of international motor sports.
3.	10 points for greener motoring: (1) Buy Green (2) Plan your journey (3) Check tyre pressures frequently (4) Reduce loads and avoid the need for roof racks (5) Don’t warm up your engine before starting off (6) Use air conditioning only when necessary (7) Accelerate gently and keep your speed constant (8) Use engine braking (9) Don’t idle your engine (10) Offset your CO2 emissions