Buckle up for Child Passenger Safety Week
The greatest danger to children is car crashes and improper child passenger restraints.
The importance of keeping children safe cannot be stressed enough. Failure to take proper precautions can put children in harm’s way — and we’re not talking here about decisions on masking or not masking.
The leading cause of injuries and deaths among children is not COVID or any related effects of this long-running pandemic. The greatest danger is car crashes and improper child passenger restraints.
“Car crashes are the leading cause of injuries and deaths among children,” said Mark Chung, National Safety Council, VP Roadway Practice. “This safety risk can be mitigated by the correct use of car seats and booster seats.”
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), approximately 183,000 children were injured in car crashes in 2018, or more than 500 injuries per day. In 2019, three children younger than 14 years of age were killed every day while riding in motor vehicles in the United States.
This week is National Child Passenger Safety Week, and public health agencies are reminding parents and child caregivers how to choose and install the proper restraint for children based on age and size. This year’s theme is “Love Me, Buckle Me, in the Right Seat at the Right Time” and urges parents and caregivers to protect their child’s future at every stage of life, by making sure they secure them in the correct car seat.
Children who are correctly buckled in a car seat, booster seat, or seat belt benefit from the single most effective way to protect passengers in a motor vehicle and reduce fatalities in a crash. However, more than half of all car seats brought in for inspection to child passenger safety technicians are improperly installed and used, according to the National Digital Car Seat Check Form (NDCF) database.
Data from the NDCF database revealed three common mistakes:
(1) having the car seat installation be too loose, (2) failing to use the tether when installing a forward-facing car seat with either the lower anchors or seat belt, and (3) leaving harness straps too loose when securing a child in a car seat.
Children are also often transitioned out of the appropriate car seats before it is safe to do so. More than a quarter of children are moved from forwardfacing car seats to booster seats too soon, and more than 90 percent of children using lap-and-shoulder seat belts under the age of 10 should still be in a car seat or booster seat, according to data.
Pennsylvania’s primary seat belt law requires all occupants younger than 18 to wear a seat belt when riding anywhere in a vehicle. Children under the age of two must be secured in a rear-facing car seat, and children under the age of four must be restrained in an approved child safety seat. Children must ride in a booster seat until their eighth birthday
Because of the potential dangers associated with air bag deployment, children 12 and younger should always ride buckled in a vehicle’s back seat.
County and state agencies have resources available to assist with child passenger seat safety and even help parents acquire a car seat if they can’t afford one. The resources are emphasized during Child Passenger Safety Week, but assistance and information is available throughout the year.
Whether on an errand or a road trip, there is no excuse for failing to keep children safe when traveling. Keep children buckled; keep them in car seats; keep them safe.
The Montgomery County Office of Public Health offers free, one-hour Virtual Car Seat Check Appointments to ensure proper installation of child safety seats and provide child passenger safety information. The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, Pennsylvania State Police, and Pennsylvania Traffic Injury Prevention Project are sponsoring safety seat checks across the state. Visit PA TIPP’s webpage for a list of events. If you are unable to afford a car seat, call 1-800-CAR-BELT or visit www.pakidstravelsafe.org to find the nearest car seat loan program. Child Safety Seat Inspection Stations and Community Car Seat Checkup Events are provided on the website. For a list of state police car seat safety inspection locations and dates, visit the PSP Public Safety webpage.