CARS.COM — A disturbing downward trend in appropriate child-restraint use by U.S. motorists could threaten to undermine major progress since 2000 in preventing deaths of 4- to 7-year-olds. According to a recent report from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration[1], proper use of child restraints in vehicles declined in several categories from 2013 to 2015.
Related: Teen-Involved Traffic Deaths Rise 10 Percent[2]
Booster-seat use among 4- to 7-year-olds was determined to be 44.5 percent in 2015 compared with 46.3 percent two years earlier. While that change was not considered "statistically significant," according to researchers, others were: Nearly 14 percent of children ages 1 to 3 were prematurely graduated to booster seats in 2015; that's compared with just more than 9 percent in 2013.
Moreover, restraint use among girls age 8 to 12 fell nearly 8 percent to 82.6 percent. Restraint use among 8- to 12-year-olds whose height is between 37 and 53 inches, meanwhile, dipped nearly 7 percent.
These figures come from the 2015 National Survey of the Use of Booster Seats[3], which studies child-restraint use through interviews and observations. The biennial study was born of a congressional order in 2000 to reduce by 25 percent the number of injuries and deaths among 4- to 7-year-old vehicle occupants as a result of improper child-restrain use. As of 2014 — the latest data available — traffic fatalities among the targeted age group had decreased nearly 46 percent to 310 since the effort began.
"The appropriate restraint system for 4- to 7-year-old children is either a forward-facing car seat or a booster seat, depending on the child's height and weight," NHTSA stated. "However ... results indicate that as many as 37.4 percent of children 4 to 7 [years old] in the U.S. were not being properly restrained."
About 26 percent of those children prematurely wore seat belts, while nearly 12 percent were entirely unrestrained. The dangers an unrestrained or improperly restrained child faces were highlighted in the national news recently when the "Today" show interviewed the family of a 6-year-old girl who was seriously injured by her seat belt[4] during a crash. Her father forgot her booster seat and she wiggled out of the seat belt.
"Risking the safety of future generations by letting children ride unrestrained is not acceptable," U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said in a statement. "Seat belts and car seats save lives, and need to be used on every trip."
References
- ^ National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (www.nhtsa.gov)
- ^ Teen-Involved Traffic Deaths Rise 10 Percent (www.cars.com)
- ^ 2015 National Survey of the Use of Booster Seats (www.nhtsa.gov)
- ^ injured by her seat belt (www.today.com)
