Although sunscreen, first aid kits and cell phones are among the travel aids that parents bring to ensure safety on vacation, many parents underestimate the importance of correctly using child safety seats for every ride. Motor vehicle crashes remain the leading killer of kids, in part because nearly a third of children ride in the wrong restraints for their age and size and four out of five child safety seats are used incorrectly.
Motor vehicle crashes are still taking children’s lives at an alarming rate. Correctly restraining children dramatically cuts their risk of injury and death.
Child safety seats and safety belts, when selected, installed and used correctly, can prevent injuries and save lives.
Install and use your child safety seat or safety belt according to the manufacturer’s instructions and your vehicle owner's manual. Ensure your child safety seat has not been recalled.
- Buckle up every time, no matter how short the trip.
- Children 12 and under should be properly restrained in a back seat. A back seat is generally the safest place for a child to ride. While air bags can save lives, kids riding in the front seat can be seriously injured or killed when an air bag comes out in a crash. Even with advanced air bags or no air bags, the back seat is safer for children.
- Never put a rear-facing child in a front seat with an active frontal air bag.
- Choose the right child safety seat or safety belt for your child’s size and age. Make sure you have the right seat for your child:
- Infants should ride in rear-facing safety seats as long as possible, until they are at least 12 months old.
- Children who are at least 1 year old, weigh less than 15kg and can no longer ride in rear-facing seats should ride in forward-facing child safety seats.
- Children over 15kg should be correctly secured in belt-positioning boosters or other appropriate child restraints until the adult lap and shoulder belts fit correctly, usually around age 8.
- Once the vehicle safety belts fit children, both lap and shoulder belts should be used correctly.
- A review of various United States studies has shown that child safety seats that are correctly installed and used for children aged 0–4 years can reduce the need for hospitalization by 69%.
- The risk of death for infants is reduced by 70%, and that for children aged 1–4 years by 47–54%.
- It has been estimated in the United Kingdom that new rules on the use of child restraints rather than adult seat-belts for children up to 135 cm in height or aged 12 years and above will save over 2000 child injuries or deaths every year .
Airbags should also be seen as supplemental restraint systems, designed to add additional protection to seat-belts in (primarily) frontal crashes over 13 kilometres per hour (km/h). While airbags have saved many lives, there have also been deaths attributed to airbags deploying in crashes that would not have been life threatening. Analysis of deaths involving airbags in the United States showed that nearly all of the people who have died from airbag related injuries were either unrestrained or improperly restrained.
Most of the deaths have been to children and adults of small stature. Airbags are a passive restraint system, deploying automatically in some types of crashes. If an occupant is unrestrained, or the vehicle has an airbag installed but no seat-belt, it is possible that the occupant may come into contact with the airbag before it has fully inflated. This is also the case for people who need to sit closer to the steering wheel as a result of their size.
Airbags deploy at approximately 300 km/h. Therefore, vehicle occupants should ensure that they are restrained regardless of whether or not a vehicle has an airbag installed. It is best for small children to be sitting in a child restraint on the back seat away from airbags!
There are three “collisions” that occur in every crash where occupants are unrestrained. The first collision involves the vehicle and another object, e.g. another vehicle(s), a stationary object (tree, signpost or ditch) or a human or animal. The second collision occurs between the unbelted occupant and the vehicle interior, e.g. the driver hits his chest on the steering wheel or his head on the window. Finally, the third collision occurs when the internal organs of the body hit against the chest wall or the skeletal structure.
It is the second collision that is most responsible for injuries, and can be reduced significantly by the use of seat-belts and child restraints. The most frequent and most serious injuries occurring in frontal impacts to occupants unrestrained by seat-belts are to the head, followed in importance by the chest and then the abdomen. Among disabling injuries, those to the leg and neck occur most frequently.
When a crash occurs, a car occupant without a seat-belt will continue to move at the same speed at which the vehicle was travelling before the collision and will be catapulted forward into the structure of the vehicle – most likely into the steering wheel if they are driving, or into the back of the front seats if they are rear seat passengers. Alternatively, they can be ejected from the vehicle completely.
At birth, the infant head is around a quarter of their total length and about a third of their body weight. An infant’s skull is very flexible, so a relatively small impact can result in significant deformation of the skull and brain. The smaller the child, the lower the force needed for injury. The infant rib cage is also very flexible. Impact to the chest can result in a large compression of the chest wall onto the heart and lungs, and some of the abdominal organs. The infant pelvis is unstable and cannot withstand the forces from an adult restraint system. Infants require their own special seat designed to cradle them in a crash, and provide protection from many types of crashes.
Like adult seat-belts, child restraints in cars are intended to keep a child firmly secured in their seat so that in the event of sudden braking or collision the child is not thrown against the car interior or ejected from the vehicle. The restraint must absorb kinetic energy (created by the motion of the child during the crash) without itself injuring the child and must be easy to use.
There are a number of different types of restraints - The main determining factor for choice of a child restraint is the child’s weight. Older children who are above the height and weight specifications for using child restraints require a properly fitting three-point lap and diagonal seat-belt when riding in a vehicle.
It is also important that child restraints be used correctly – If a child is restrained in the wrong system for its age or weight, or the straps or harnesses are not adequately secured or entirely left undone, it will place the child at an increased risk of both fatal and non-fatal injuries. Always follow the manufacturer’s instructions when installing a restraint and placing your child in it.
Never carry your child in your arms or share your seat belt with your child. In a crash you won't be able to hold on to your child. He or she may be thrown around the vehicle or thrown out of the vehicle. The safest way for an infant to travel in a vehicle is in the rear facing position. A rear-facing child restraint system (sometimes called an “infant car seat”) provides the best protection for infants until they are 1 year of age. Keep them in this position for as long as possible and only move them to a forward facing child seat when they no longer fit in the rear facing position.
The bone-forming process is not complete until the age of 6 or 7 years, and throughout childhood a child’s skull remains less strong than that of an adult. A restraint system needs to limit forward head movement in a frontal impact and provide protection from intrusion in a side impact. A child restraint should therefore distribute the crash forces over as wide an area as possible. Belts and harnesses need to fit well and be properly positioned as designed by the manufacturer.
The restraint system should also provide protection from contact with the vehicle interior in both front and side impacts. The best type of child restraint for young children is the child safety seat. The integral harness secures the child and spreads the crash forces over a wide area. This seat will last them until either their weight exceeds 18 kg or they grow too tall for the height of the adjustable harness.
Booster seats are best used only when a child has outgrown a safety seat. They are designed for weights from 15 kg to 36 kg. Children should continue to ride in a booster seat until the lap and diagonal belts in the car fit properly, typically when they are approximately 145 centimetres (cm) tall. Booster seats raise the seating position of the child so that the adult seat-belt lies properly across the chest, crossing diagonally at the child's shoulder rather than the neck, and low across the pelvis. If the adult belt is too high across the stomach, in a crash serious internal injury could result, or the child could submarine under the seat-belt. The booster seat has a back and can provide some protection in a side impact.
A booster seat can improve the seat belt fit when your child is too big for a forward facing child seat and too small for an adult belt. As a general guide, buy a rigid booster seat with a sash guide to keep the seat belt in place.
Once your child’s eyes are level with the top of the back seat of the car or the child is approximately 26kg or over, they may use a seat belt. The seat belt, however, must fit your child correctly; i.e the lap belt is low over the bony part of the hips (not the stomach) and the sash does not touch their face or neck when all slack is removed.
When using an adult belt, either alone or in conjunction with a booster seat, do not allow your child to place the sash portion of the belt under their arms or behind their back. Never use a booster seat with a lap only belt alone.
If you are purchasing or borrowing a second-hand restraint, be VERY CAREFUL. Only use a restraint when you know its history or if it has been obtained from a reliable source. Do not buy or use it if it has been involved in a crash, has worn straps, bent or worn buckles, or the attachment points in the plastic shell are cracked or discoloured, for example from age or over exposure to the sun.
We will be failing our children by not enforcing laws on child restraints and by not teaching our children to buckle up. Buckling up is the simplest way to save the lives of child passengers - let us wear child restraints and seatbelts at all times.
