OCCUPANT PROTECTION FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY
August is a great time to remind people that the most important traffic safety step they can take is to use seat belts and child safety seats on every trip, whether it’s down the street to the neighborhood pool or across the country for a family reunion.
The previous Campaign Safe & Sober Program Planner 18 – Occupant Protection covered the general topics of safety belts as well as child passenger safety. Please refer to Program Planner 19 for ideas that can be adopted year-round (see Program Publications for Planner 19) to order or check it out on the Web at http://www.SafeandSober.org.
In this Planner, we focus on two issues in the news recently: the new Universal Child Safety Seat System and older children (ages 4-16).
Universal Child Safety Seat System
Child safety seat use has dramatically decreased the motor vehicle death rate for children under the age of four. In fact, motor vehicle crashes are no longer the leading cause of death for this age group. However, incorrect child seat installation is an enormous problem. At child safety seat checkpoints and clinics, child passenger safety professionals report misuse rates well over 90 percent. In some cases, virtually all child safety seats are installed incorrectly.
The most common form of misuse has to do with seat belts that are too loose and do not hold the child safety seat firmly in place. The Universal Child Safety Seat System (UCSSS) – a uniform anchorage (attachment) system for all new motor vehicles and child safety seats – will go a long way toward eliminating this problem, because the attachment system does not rely on the vehicle’s seat belts but on new upper and lower anchorages designed specifically for child safety seats. The UCSSS will greatly simplify child safety seat installation and will protect children by keeping seats more secure in vehicles (parents must still make sure they have selected the correct seat to fit their child and must make sure the child is properly secured in the seat). The new requirements for both vehicles and child safety seats will be phased in over the next three years. Additional details about the UCSSS are included in this Program Planner in a separate flyer, item #1P1134.
Older Children
Seat belts are designed for adults. They do not fit young children properly and can sometimes complicate injuries in a crash. One of the best ways to address safety for older children is to increase the use of booster seats. Most parents wouldn’t think of transporting a two-year-old unless he or she were safely strapped into a child safety seat, yet once that same child turns four many parents "graduate" them right into seat belts.
Older children ages four to 16 are over-represented in motor vehicle crashes, the leading cause of death for this age group. In 1997, four older children died and another 183 were injured every day in motor vehicle crashes. To focus on occupant restraints for older children, NHTSA convened Blue Ribbon Panel II for Protecting Older Child Passengers in Motor Vehicles. On March 15, 1999, the panel announced its recommendations and strategies for increasing seat belt and booster seat use in this age group, including marketing and public education, legislation and enforcement, and product design.
Among the panel’s recommendations are:
- that states close any gaps in their occupant restraint laws to make sure all children are covered;
- that NHTSA develop a crash-test dummy representing a 10-year-old child; and
- that NHTSA regulate belt-adjusting aftermarket products to insure that they do not degrade lap belt performance.
For the facts on booster seats, see A Parent’s Guide to Booster Seats and the Child Transportation Safety Tips (Tip #2 and Tip #3), which can be ordered from Program Publications for Planner 19 included in this Program Planner.
