On February 12, 2004 the Senate passed a highway funding bill that has safety provisions that, if included in the House funding bill and signed into law, would dramatically improve safety for children in vehicles as well as driveways, and also improve overall passenger safety in many important ways.

The Senate-passed bill will increase child safety with grants to improve booster seat laws, a requirement for federal development of child test dummies for use in crash tests, and a federal data collection and study of vehicle backover avoidance technology.

However, the fight is far from over. Auto industry lobbyists have not been shy about telling reporters that the real fight is yet to come - in the House of Representatives and in conference over the bill. Winning final passage won't be easy: the Bush Administration has gone on record as opposed to the clear safety mandates in the bill.

You can be a force for safety in America's highways and driveways by urging your Representative to include these important safety protections in the highway funding bill currently pending before the House. Click here to learn more and send a fax today: http://www.citizen.org/fax/background.cfm?id=310&source=48.