State Farm Press Release

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Seven Out of 10 Children are Not Properly Secured in the Car

Be safe; have your car seat checked by an expert at State Farm®Child Safety Day

Harriman, Tenn., June 3, 2011 - The safety of your children is important to you, and you always make sure they are “belted in” when you drive. But, proper use of safety restraints can be confusing.

While more child passengers are restrained than ever before: 96 percent of children ages 0-3 and 87 percent of children ages 4-7, more than 70 percent are NOT properly restrained for their age, height and weight. Being improperly restrained leads to increased likelihood of injury and fatalities among children involved in car crashes.

State Farm is tackling this national problem by hosting its eleventh annual Child Safety Day at locations across the country. A local event will be held on Saturday, June 11, from 10:00 - 12:00 noon at 114 N. Roane Street in Harriman. Car seat technicians from SafeKids Coalition of the Greater Knox Area, will provide free inspections of child safety seats, assisted by State Farm agent Scotty Dykes. The safety seat technicians will show you how to address the most common mistakes, including turning the car seat to a forward-facing position too soon, not strapping the child securely enough into the car seat, not securing the car seat tightly enough to the vehicle, and moving the child to an adult seat belt too soon.

“By hosting Child Safety Day events, State Farm continues its commitment to child passenger safety. We want to do our part to help parents with the important, yet often confusing, task of keeping their children safe in the car," said Dykes.

Since 2001, State Farm has hosted events at more than 2,000 sites where certified car seat technicians have inspected more than 82,000 child safety seats.

For more information about child passenger safety, visit State Farm Child Safety Day or go to www.statefarm.com, www.safekids.org, or www.nhtsa.dot.gov

Contact

Judy McConkey, State Farm Insurance at (615) 692-6280.

About State Farm

State Farm insures more cars and homes than any other insurer in the U.S., is the leading insurer of watercraft and is also a leading insurer in Canada. Our 17,800 agents and more than 66,000 employees serve 81 million policies and accounts - more than 79 million auto, fire, life and health policies in the United States and Canada, and nearly 2 million bank accounts. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company is the parent of the State Farm family of companies. State Farm is ranked No. 34 on the Fortune 500 list of largest companies. For more information, please visit statefarm.com® or in Canada statefarm.ca®.