In a study that rated child occupant protection laws in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, 24 states received F's for laws that fail to properly protect children in motor vehicles.
The study was conducted by the National SAFE KIDS Campaign, a child-safety
advocacy effort.
In a press release SAFE KIDS said that it "stringently measured" child-occupant
protection laws against a model law that requires correct restraint of
all children, in all seating positions, in the care of all drivers.
Among the alarming findings:
Nearly half of all states (24) earned F's, and more than a third of
all states (18) and the District of Columbia earned D's. In many states
children are legally allowed to ride completely unrestrained in the back
seat of a vehicle, while other states allow young children to ride improperly
restrained with only an adult seat belt.
No state fully protects all child passengers ages 15 and under. Specifically,
children ages 6-8 are not required to ride in booster seats in any state.
34 states allow child passengers to ride unrestrained due to exemptions.
Exemptions include: nursing mothers, out-of-state plates, non-state resident
drivers, and overcrowded cars.
"These harsh grades reflect the harsh reality that too many states
allow adults to improperly protect their children," stated Heather Paul,
PhD, executive director of the National SAFE KIDS Campaign.
Each year, nearly 1,800 children age 14 and under die in motor-vehicle
crashes, and more than 274,000 children are injured. Riding unrestrained
is the greatest risk factor for death and injury among child occupants
of motor vehicles. Children who are not restrained are far more likely
to suffer severe injuries or even death in motor-vehicle crashes. Yet approximately
30 percent of children ages 4 and under ride unrestrained, and of those
who do buckle up, 4 out of 5 children are improperly secured. Only 5 percent
of 4- to 8-year-olds ride in booster seats.
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NHTSA Survey Shows Air Bag Misuse
August 3, 2001
A study of vehicles equipped by the manufacturer with air bag cutoff
switches has revealed widespread misuse endangering nearly half the front
seat child passengers under 13, the U.S. Department of Transportation's
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reported.
The survey was conducted in four states -- California, Georgia, Michigan,
and Texas -- because they have the nation's highest rates of newer light
truck registrations and because they represent diverse geographic locations.
A total of 1,637 interviews were conducted at the point where the status
of the on-off switch was observed.
As of April 1, 2001, NHTSA is aware of 104 deaths of children attributed
to the force of a deploying air bag. In 1995 NHTSA issued a rule allowing
manufacturers to install an on-off switch for the passenger air bag in
vehicles that cannot accommodate a rear-facing child seat anywhere except
in the front seat, such as pickup trucks and cars either with no rear seats
or with small rear seats.
Even though passenger side air bags have saved more than a thousand
lives, there are some people who should not be exposed to an air bag deployment,
the agency said.
The survey showed that 48 percent of the air bags were left on for
child passengers 1-12 years old, potentially exposing these children to
serious injury or death from the force of deployment. In most of these
cases, the drivers erroneously told interviewers air bags needed to be
turned off only for babies, or for children younger than their passenger
-- or they left the switch on all the time, thinking air bags were safe
for all of their passengers.
Drivers transporting infants achieved the highest, although still not
perfect, success: 91 percent turned off the passenger air bags and only
9 percent left them on (two drivers in the survey, both driving someone
else's truck, an unfamiliar vehicle).
The survey also uncovered a problem that occurs when drivers ride with
adult passengers. While 82 percent of the switches were on, as they should
be, 18 percent were switched off. Many of these trucks often transport
children, and owners kept the switch turned off permanently to guarantee
their child would not be exposed to deployments. However, this deprived
the adult passengers of any potential benefits of air bags. When the three
passenger age groups are combined, the on-off switch was misused 27 percent
of the time.
The survey report concludes that NHTSA and its partners must increase
efforts to educate the public on the dangers of air bags to toddlers and
pre-teens, and their benefits for adults.
This needs to be a continuing effort, because as of July 1, 2001, there
were approximately 10.2 million pickup trucks on the road with the switches,
and pickup trucks tend to remain in use for many years.