Don’t Skip a Step with Child Passenger Safety
This year the National Child Passenger Safety week’s (February 12-18, 2006) focus was on booster seats. This reinforces the notion that even though booster seats are essential in protecting and saving children’s lives, they are still not used as long as they should. National Child Passenger Safety week emphasizes the importance of properly buckling up children. Traffic crashes remain a leading cause of injury and death to young children. In 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 6 deaths and 673 injuries each day. Ensure that children in your care are riding in the safest possible way, while riding to and from school, on field trips, and at all times.
As children progress through different stages of growth and development, their child restraint needs change. Infants ride rear facing in an infant or convertible seat as long as possible but until they weigh AT LEAST 20 pounds AND are AT LEAST 1 year of age. For toddlers and preschoolers use a child restraint with a harness until the child outgrows it (Always check the instructions of each individual car seat to be sure of the age and weight specifications for that car seat) Next, the preschool or school age child moves to a belt-positioning booster to raise them up and improve the fit of the vehicle shoulder and lap belt. A shield booster, which has a bolster in front of the child and no back, is NOT certified for children over 40 pounds and not recommended for children under 40 pounds.
As of January 1, 2005, California law requires all children to ride properly restrained in the back seat of a vehicle in a child safety seat, or booster seat until they are at least 6 years old or weigh 60 pounds. Children prematurely riding in a seat belt can suffer life-threatening injuries, including injury to the spinal cord, the brain or the internal organs of the abdomen. Most children need to use a belt-positioning booster seat until they are at least 8-11 years old, depending on the child’s height and how the vehicle lap and shoulder belts fit. Safety belts don’t fit children until they can sit with their back straight against the vehicle seat back cushion and their knees bent over the seat edge for the entire trip. The lap belt should fit low and snug across the child’s upper thighs and the shoulder belt should cross the shoulder, not the throat or face, and be close to the child’s chest.
Contact Safely on the Move at (866) 700-7686 or (619) 594-0784 for a low-cost car seat
Sources:
- National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (n.d.) Traffic Safety Facts 2004: Children, DOT HS 809 906 Washington, DC: NHTSA.
- “The Danger of Premature Graduation to Seat Belts for Young Children,” by FK Winston, DR Durbin, MJ Kallan, EK Moll. Pediatrics 105(6):1179-1183, June, 2000. pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/reprint/105/6/1179
- Occurances, and Consequences. Child Passenger Safety: Fact Sheet. National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.
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This information provided by San Diego State University Foundation.
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