Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety (Advocates) sent the message below to Congress on July 29, 2021:
Andy Warner (Littleton, CO) Father of Taylor Grace Warner: “My daughter, Taylor Grace, was killed in 2010, at almost 17 months old, when our car was hit from behind, and the seat in front of her collapsed in a totally predictable way. She was killed by a seat that met the federal standard. Our little girl did not live to see her second birthday, but this failing standard is now almost 54 years old. We chose the vehicle we were in because we thought it was safe. Yet, because the government has failed to modernize the seatback standard, parents just like us are putting their own children at risk every day when they are doing exactly as the government recommends – putting their babies in the back seat.”
What Andy Asks You To Do:
Congress must take action now in the infrastructure/transportation bill to prevent crashes, deaths & injuries.
- Children (and adults) who are properly restrained in the rear seat of a vehicle are being needlessly killed or seriously injured when a seatback fails. The federal standard for seatbacks has remained relatively unchanged since 1967. S. DOT must be required to improve the seatback standard by a date certain.
Meaningful safety advances must be included in the bill. It costs less than $5 to make a seat safer. Failure to advance proven solutions will cost $5 trillion over the 5-year span of the legislation. In honor of Taylor Grace, and the tens of thousands of families like the Warners whose loved ones are killed in crashes each year, we urge you to ensure safety is prioritized by requiring an update of the out-of-date seatback standard.