Car Seat Safety

Motor vehicle injuries are the leading cause of death among children 0-12 years of age in the U.S. (CDC 2005). * Each year thousands of young children are killed or injured in car crashes. You can help prevent this from happening to your child by always using car safety seats and seat belts correctly. (AAP 2006) * Car safety seats have been shown to be highly effective in reducing death and injury due to motor vehicle crashes. Car safety seats are 71% effective in reducing deaths for infants and 54% effective in reducing deaths for children ages 1 to 4 years. Belt-positioning booster seats reduce the risk of injury by 59% for children ages 4 through 8 years. Clearly, restraining infants and children in the proper car safety seat does help keep them safe. (NHTSA 2005) * In the United States during 2004, 1,638 children ages 14 years and younger died as occupants in motor vehicle crashes, and approximately 214,000 were injured. That’s an average of 5 deaths and 586 injuries each day (NHTSA 2005a). * Of the children ages 0 to 14 years who were killed in motor vehicle crashes during 2004, half were unrestrained (NHTSA 2005a). * One study showed that children ages 2-5 yrs who are moved to seat belts too early have 4 times the risk of a head injury in a crash. * Children ages 4 through 7 are generally too small for adult seat belts and need a BOOSTER SEAT to ensure the seat belt will fit securely across their chests and low across the upper thights - to help prevent internal injuries, neck, head and spinal injuries, and even ejection and death in the event of a crash. * One out of four of all occupant deaths among children ages 0 to 14 years involve a drinking driver. More than two-thirds of these fatally injured children were riding with a drinking driver (Shults 2004). * Restraint use among young children often depends upon the driver’s restraint use. Almost 40% of children riding with unbelted drivers were themselves unrestrained (Cody 2002). * Many children who ride in child safety seats are improperly secured. A survey of more than 17,500 children found that only 15% of children in safety seats were correctly harnessed into correctly installed seats (Taft 1999). Produced by Unknown. Brought to you by SafetyTV Library, www.safetyissues.com. Life Has No Reset Button, Think Safety.