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Dana Hutchinson
June 1991 – September 1994 |
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On September 22, 1994, 3-year-old Dana Monique Hutchinson suffered critical head and neck injuries in a head-on collision. After three days on life support systems and a great deal of family support, Dana died. Her uncle, Joseph M. Colella, and other family members wanted to know why Dana’s child safety seat had not prevented the fatal injuries. In less than a week, they were able to find documented proof that her child restraint and the vehicle seating position where it was secured were incompatible. They learned that supplemental hardware would have been necessary to overcome the incompatibility, and that similar complications for correctly restraining children were common.
That October, after making contact with numerous child restraint manufacturers, automobile manufacturers and field experts, Mr. Colella and his family launched the efforts of the Drivers Appeal for National Awareness (DANA) Foundation. The non-profit organization’s goals were to raise public awareness of incompatibilities and misuse, and to work with manufacturers and regulators to simplify the correct use of child restraints. They began working with national media to help accomplish these objectives.
In January, 1995, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration chartered a Blue Ribbon Panel on Child Restraint & Vehicle Compatibility. This unprecedented effort brought vehicle manufacturers, child restraint manufacturers and advocate experts (including two members of the Colella family) together, with the goal of reducing incompatibilities and making child restraint installation easier. A few months later, the group announced 27 recommendations to address the problems. Among them were comprehensive educational efforts and the design and implementation of a universal child restraint anchorage system.
Since 1997, nearly 50,000 advocates have been trained through the National Child Passenger Safety Certification Training program, a four-day course used to educate child passenger safety technicians and instructors which did not exist at the time of Dana’s vehicle crash and death. Phase-in of the new installation system, Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children (LATCH) was completed in 2002, and further improvements continue to be made. Mr. Colella remains actively involved in educational, technical and advocacy programs.
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