Applauding NBC4 & Liz Crenshaw: Child Safety

---

The odds are 1 in 2. These odds are pretty bad and this is the misuse rate of child safety seats in the United States. Tonight at 5:00 pm, Emmy award winning consumer reporter, Liz Crenshaw, will show how to select the right child safety seat for your child, and more importantly, how to properly install it. The segment airs on the evening news program on NBC News 4.

---

Fitzgerald Auto Mall is passionate about the subject, passionate enough to commit our own resources and time to protecting kids. Our employees put in hundreds of volunteer hours as certified installers at our monthly Fitzgerald Child Safety Seat Program events. In 1999, my first year of the program, the misuse rate was 97%. The numbers have dropped to 50% year to date, but that’s still too high.

---

I’m happy that Liz Crenshaw is drawing attention to how seats have to be properly installed to keep your child safe.

---

Fitzgerald associates have installed and inspected over 42,000 child safety seats. No other local volunteer program in the United States has ever achieved this many child safety seat inspections within a single program.

---

The success of this program is the public-private partnership we have with the local Montgomery County police and fire rescue volunteers, and working with the office of the Montgomery County Safe Kids Coalition. They have been integral in helping to organize and promote the events.

---

U.S. National Highway Traffic and Safety states the misuse of car seats remains a big problem and motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death among children ages 3 to 14. The latest numbers show that every day in the US, an average of 4 children younger than 14 were killed and 529 were injured in motor vehicle crashes.

---

I hope you watch Liz Crenshaw’s report tonight at 5:00, and mark your calendars for the next monthly child safety seat inspection on Thursday, November 15, from 10 am-12:30 pm. Monthly inspections are held on the third Thursday of every month, from March to December at the White Flint Rockville dealership on Nicholson Lane. Visit www.FitzMall.com for details or to make an appointment.

Road Trips in 2011

As I continue my visits into 2012 I want to thank all our associates for your time and attention during our discussions about the workplace. Please keep that same positive attitude and keep smiling. We spend so much time together, and creating that positive place to work is a responsibility we all have. Thank you again for your efforts in taking care of our customers. After reading a recent article predicting the demise of Best Buy, we should all be reminded that it is the people who make the difference for customers, who ultimately determine our success or failure. We need to keep focused on taking care of the customer at every moment, or we risk losing the very reason for our existence.

Washington Post Talking About ASSET

By Thomas Heath - Washington Post 10/28/2011

Speaking of auto dealers ...

Jack Fitzgerald, local auto dealer turned grassroots organizer, is turning his attention to a new cause: the estate tax.

The gravel-voiced businessman, born poor on North Capitol and K street, has helped to found Americans Standing for the Simplification of the Estate Tax.

“We’ve been in and out of 100 offices and organizations,” said Fitzgerald. “We haven’t been thrown out yet. People are interested in it. Our proposal eliminates the forced closure of a business or of a farm to pay a 35 percent estate tax, which may soon be raised to 55 percent.”

The coalition hopes to have a bill before Congress in 2012.

40,000 Child Safety Seats

It was an amazing milestone to celebrate on May 19th the installation and education with a parent on our 40,000th child safety seat. When we first started this program in 1999 with Montgomery County we could not have imagined that we would still be so active and involved, to reach 40,000 car seats. The best news is how much the misuse rate has continued to drop with each event, from a high of 97% in 1999 to just 50% year to date. Remarkable. Thank you to all the volunteers and to our friends at the state and local level for making this possible.

Fitzgerald Joins Billion Acts of Green: Earth Day 2011

Jack Fitzgerald talks about the Billion Acts of Green theme for Earth Day 2011. Fitzgerald Auto Malls is committed to doing our part by recycling 82% of what we use. In addition, our LEED Gold dealership in Germantown Maryland uses Solar and Wind Power, and all our Maryland dealerships are 100% Wind Power. Florida and Pennsylvania are Green Power.

It's time for a recall of the estate tax | The Examiner | Op Eds | Washington Examiner

It's time for a recall of the estate tax | The Examiner | Op Eds | Washington Examiner

Car Rental Convention

I must admit that when they asked me to give the keynote address at the National Car Rental Convention in Las Vegas I couldn't understand why they wanted to hear from me. As it turns out, so many of the rental operators are facing the same challenges that we all face in business, from staffing issues to government regulation.

My message to the franchisors and franchisees (some of which were ours from Rent-a-Wreck/Priceless) was very simple: all politics is local and get involved. I know that is not the first time people have heard that expression from Tip O'Neil's book, but the truth is more business people need to educate our elected officials on how our business works and the jobs we provide.

Whether you provide three or four jobs, or 1,000...those jobs are important to the people who have been elected to public office.