Make every ride a safe ride. Don’t let things like being on vacation, being in a hurry, being late, or the length of the ride wear you down. Even when you feel too tired to move, transfer your child’s safety seat to the car that your infant will be riding in. And, if your own father tries to talk you out of putting your fussing baby in that “awful car seat way back there with nothing to look at” and if he goes on to tell you about that coast-to-coast car trip where you sat happily on your mother’s lap in the front seat for the whole trip, don’t give in. You know the right thing to do, so do it. Make every ride a safe ride. No exceptions! No excuses! No regrets!

The Size of the Problem Nationwide

• Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of injury-related death in children ages 1 to 14.
• In 1998, almost 300,000 children were injured while riding in a motor vehicle.
• The risk of death and injury in a motor vehicle crash is higher for children under age 4 than for other age groups. About 1 in 3 children in this age group rides unrestrained.
• The proper use of properly installed child safety seats could prevent 70 percent of motor vehicle-related deaths for infants younger than 1 year and more than half of the deaths of children ages 1 to 4.
• The majority of motor vehicle crashes occur within 25 miles of home and on roads with posted speed limits of 40 mph or less.
• Motor vehicle crashes on country roads are more frequent, more severe, and have a higher death rate than crashes on city streets.

Source: National SAFE KIDS Campaign

Useful Info: Child Safety Seats 101

In order to protect young children from injury in a motor vehicle accident, safety features must be designed with the child in mind.

An effective infant restraint system must able to restrain small and easily broken bones. It must prevent damage to soft and easily injured internal organs. And must prevent the infant’s fairly large and heavy head from rapid movements that strain the neck and spinal cord.

Only by faithfully following the instructions with your child safety seat will your child benefit from the protection the seat was designed to provide.

Health Alert: Motor Vehicle Safety and Your Child with Special Needs

If you have a child with special needs or with certain health problems, your child may require special adaptive equipment for safe and comfortable transportation.

There are a number of resources you can use, beginning with the car seat safety program in the hospital where your child was born. You can also call the Automotive Safety for Children Program at Riley Hospital at 1-800-KID-N-CAR.

Health Alert: Air Bags and Children

Air bags are dangerous for children younger than age 12. Passenger air bags have caused the death of more than 100 children. Almost all of these children were improperly restrained or unrestrained at the time of the crash.

Air bags only inflate in head-on crashes. They inflate at tremendous speeds of up to 200 mph. The air bag loses air immediately after it inflates.

The likely cause of death with air bag injuries is a head or neck injury caused by a blow to the head from the inflating air bag. The injury to infants in rear-facing safety seats is caused by the inflating bag hitting the back of the infant’s seat behind the infant’s head.

Source: American Academy of Pediatrics

Safety Habits: Protect Your Child from Motor Vehicle Injury

Infants should ride in the back seat in rear-facing car seats until they weigh at least 20 pounds and are 1 year old. Infants should never be placed in the front seat with an air bag on the passenger side.

Children older than 1 year who weigh between 20 and 40 pounds should ride in the back seat in forward-facing car seats. Children fit in the car seat properly if their ears are below the top of the back of the car seat and their shoulders are below the seat strap slots.

Children who weigh more than 40 pounds and are more than 3 feet 4 inches tall (usually under 10 years old) should sit in booster seats. The booster seat is used to make the lap and shoulder belt fit properly. The booster seat must be secured with both the lap and shoulder belt.

Children who weigh more than 80 pounds and are more than 4 feet 10 inches tall (usually 10 years or older) are big enough to have the lap and shoulder belts fit correctly. The shoulder belt should never be under the child’s arms or behind the child’s back. If a child must slouch to sit comfortably with knees bent at the edge of the seat, then the child is not tall enough for the lap and shoulder belt to fit properly.

All children under 13 years old should sit in the back seat of the car using the proper restraint system. The back seat is safer than the front seat even if there is no air bag on the passenger side.

Source: American Academy of Pediatrics