Motor vehicle injuries are the leading cause of death among children in the United States, but many of these deaths can be prevented. Placing children in age and size appropriate car seats and booster seats reduces serious and fatal injuries by more than half according to the Centers for Disease Control and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

In the United States during 2005, 1,335 children ages 14 years and younger died as occupants in motor vehicle crashes, and approximately 184,000 were injured. That’s an average of four deaths and 504 injuries each day. In 2006, an estimated 425 lives were saved by car and booster seat use among children under age 5 (NHTSA, 2008).

What are the risk factors? One out of four occupant deaths among children ages 0-14 yrs. involved a drinking driver. More than two-thirds of these fatally injured children were riding with a drinking driver. Restraint use among young children often depends upon the driver’s seat belt use. Almost 40 percent of children riding with unbelted drivers were themselves unrestrained. Child restraint systems are often used incorrectly. One study found that 72 percent of nearly 3,500 observed car and booster seats were misused in a way that could be expected to increase a child’s risk of injury during a crash.

How can injuries to children in motor vehicles be prevented? Child safety seats reduce the risk of death in passenger cars by 71 percent for infants, and by 54 percent for toddlers ages 1 to 4 years. There is strong evidence that child safety seat laws, safety seat distribution and education programs, community-wide education and enforcement campaigns, and incentive-plus-education programs are effective in increasing child safety seat use. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recommends booster seats for children until they are at least 8 years of age or 4’ 9” tall.

According to researchers at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, for children 4 to 7 years, booster seats reduce injury risk by 59 percent compared to seat belts alone. All children ages 12 years and younger should ride in the back seat. Adults should avoid placing children in front of airbags. Putting children in the back seat eliminates the injury risk of deployed front passenger-side airbags and places children in the safest part of the vehicle in the event of a crash. Overall, for children less than 16 years, riding in the back seat is associated with a 40 percent reduction in the risk of serious injury.

To learn more about effective interventions to increase child safety seat use, please contact Scotland County Health Department and ask for one of the Certified Child Passenger Safety Technicians at 910-277-2440, or visit the CDC’s Motor Vehicle Occupant Safety page. Make sure the ones you love are safe and secure – all the time, on every trip.