Safe Kids Worldwide Announces 2026 Congressional Champions

Inaugural Congressional Children’s Safety Caucus Highlights Congressional Efforts to Protect Children

Washington, DC – (February 10, 2026) – Safe Kids Worldwide presented the 2026 Safe Kids Champion for Children Awards today to the co-chairs of the Congressional Children’s Safety Caucus, a bipartisan group of elected officials focused on protecting children from preventable injuries.

Representatives Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, Don Bacon, Buddy Carter, and Raja Krishnamoorthi were honored for their leadership in the formation of the bipartisan Children’s Safety Caucus at a Capitol Hill reception announcing the kickoff of the caucus.

Preventable injuries are the leading cause of death of children ages 1–19 years in the United States. In 2023, more than 9,000 families lost a child due to a preventable injury. Nearly 270,000 children were hospitalized, and 5.9 million visited an emergency department for a preventable injury.

The Children’s Safety Caucus was created to promote effective injury prevention policy interventions, increase awareness among policymakers about emerging issues and research, and raise the profile of child injury prevention more broadly among Congressional staff.

“Safe Kids Worldwide commends the leadership of Representatives Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, Buddy Carter, Don Bacon, and Raja Krishnamoorthi,” said Safe Kids Worldwide President Torine Creppy.

“These members of Congress have been at the forefront of children’s safety issues, and we look forward to working together to do more to ensure the safety of our children. We don’t want any family to lose a child to an injury that could be prevented.”

The caucus will initially focus on traffic safety, drowning prevention, and safe sleep, while also working to elevate discussion of emerging child injury issues and potential policy solutions.

Child safety facts

These facts on child safety emphasize the need for bipartisan solutions:

Road

• Fourteen children ages 12 and under die in motor vehicle crashes each week. Another 2,300 are injured in nonfatal crashes.
• Properly used child car seats and booster seats reduce the risk of death by as much as 71%, yet more than half of all car seats are not used or installed correctly.
• Certified Child Passenger Technicians (CPST) in every state are available to help parents, grandparents, and caregivers properly install their child’s car or booster seat.

Water

• Drowning is the leading cause of death among children ages 1–4 and is the third leading cause of unintentional injury-related death among children ages 19 and under.
• For every fatal child drowning, nearly seven children are seen in the emergency room due to a non-fatal drowning incident—about 150 families each week.

Safe Sleep

• Unintentional suffocation is the leading cause of injury-related death among children under age 1.
• Nearly 3,500 infants die each year in the U.S. from sleep-related infant deaths.
• Causes include suffocation, entrapment, strangulation, and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

About Safe Kids Worldwide

Safe Kids Worldwide is a nonprofit organization working to reduce preventable injuries to children ages 0–19 and build sustained systems that protect all kids. Since 1988, Safe Kids and its partners have contributed to a more than 60 percent reduction in the rate of fatal childhood unintentional injury in the U.S. Learn more at safekids.org.