Edu-Car Announces Results from Child Road Safety Study
For Immediate Release - July 2, 2009
Vanessa Valencia
Director of Communications
Voice 205.444.0119
Facsimile 205.977.9894
EDU-CAR ANNOUNCES RESULTS FROM CHILD ROAD SAFETY STUDY
BioEchoes President & CEO takes lead role as Director of Engineering, Leads Social Innovation
Birmingham, AL – Last month, EDU-CAR, a landmark, pilot project that began in 2006 in Uruguay to protect child passengers on the roads of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) held a press conference to announce the initial results from an 18 month long study that confirmed the initiative’s worst fears:
- Road traffic accidents are the main cause of death for children under the age of 18 throughout the LAC region, which has the world’s highest per capita mortality rate in road traffic incidents
- Uruguay alone reported 20,000 road traffic injuries/year out of a total population of only 3.2 million people
- 3 out of 4 children under the age of 14 in Uruguay are completely unrestrained when traveling in a vehicle
- Although 8 out of 10 parents thought they were properly restraining their child, only 1 out of 10 children were actually properly installed in a child restraint seat (CRS)
BioEchoes President and CEO, Dr. Martha Bidez has taken a lead role in the initiative as Director of the Engineering Team. “I am saddened, yet not surprised by the results of this study. This is the first carefully structured epidemiologic study of child restraint usage in the region and we are all dedicated to implementing the necessary protection that children in these regions deserve.”
EDU-CAR is coordinated by the Gonzalo Rodriguez Memorial Foundation in Montevideo, Uruguay in partnership with BioEchoes (formerly Bidez & Associates) and the Global Road Safety Forum. The initiative is; funded by the FIA Foundation, Make Roads Safe™, and the World Bank Global Road Safety Facility. “I believe that highly industrialized countries have a moral and ethical responsibility to reach out and assist less developed countries to help themselves. BioEchoes is privileged to do our part by trying to help the LAC region protect their most vulnerable road users - children,” said Dr. Bidez.
BioEchoes has just launched its new website, www.BioEchoes.com and incorporated a unique blog by Dr. Bidez, “Greater Insight” that offers the latest thinking about global public policy related to worker and consumer safety and ethical leadership. The website also empowers citizens and provides them with a road map to make their community a better place to live, work, and play. People can also visit www.edu-car.org, to learn how they can get involved.
