FACT SHEET

Child Passenger Safety

According to 2003 data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), approximately 6.3 million reported crashes occurred on America's roadways. 42,643 people were killed in these crashes, compared to 43,005 in 2002. Traffic deaths of children under 4 years old remainded unchanged with 494 deaths in 2003. While overall fatalities for children ages 4-7 declined by 1.7% from 2002 to 472, occupant fatalities rose by 5%, from 333 to 350.

Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death and injury for American children. According to NHTSA, among those killed in crashes in 2003 were 2,570 children 15 years-old and younger. Approximately 1,963 of the children killed and 253,000 of those who were injured were vehicle occupants. (The others were pedestrians or bicyclists.)

When children are properly restrained in a child safety seat, booster seat or safety belt, as appropriate for their age and size, their chance of being killed or seriously injured when in a car crash is greatly reduced. Within the last few years, 28 states and the District of Columbia have enacted booster seat laws. Only 8 states and DC have booster seat laws that cover children ages 4 - 8, as recommended by Advocates.

PROPER CHILD SAFETY SEAT USE

All children should be seated in the back seat.

(National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2004)

CHILD PASSENGER SAFETY FACTS

In the United States, an average of 6 children 0-14 years old were killed and 732 were injured every day in motor vehicle crashes during 2001. (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA, 2004)

49% of the children under five years of age that were killed in traffic crashes in 2003 were completely unrestrained. (NHTSA, 2004)

Adult safety belt use is the best predictor of child occupant restraint use. A driver who is buckled up is three times more likely to restrain a child passenger than one who is not buckled. (American Academy of Pediatrics, 1998)

According to Partners for Child Passenger Safety (PCPS), which is conducting the first comprehensive study devoted exclusively to pediatric motor vehicle injury, inappropriate restraint in adult safety belts results in a 3.5-fold increased risk of significant injury and a more than fourfold increased risk of significant head/brain injury. (PCPS (The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, State Farm Insurance Companies), 2003)

Thirty percent (30%) of infants are incorrectly turned forward-facing in their car seats before reaching 1 year of age. (PCPS, 2001)

According to PCPS, 29% of 3-year-olds are inappropriately graduated from car seats to booster seats, and 16% of 3-year-olds are inappropriately moved from car seats to adult safety belts. (PCPS, 2001)

Child safety seats reduce the risk of fatal injury by 71% for infants under one year and by 54% for toddlers age 1-4. (NHTSA, 2002)

From 1975 through 2001, an estimated 5,085 lives were saved by the use of child restraints (child safety seats or adult belts). In 2001, an estimated 269 children under age 5 were saved as a result of child restraint use. (NHTSA, 2002)

Children who ride in the back seat suffer a third fewer fatalities than those in the front seat. (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, or IIHS, 1999)

The best way to protect children age 12 and under from risks posed by air bags is to place them in the back seat, properly restrained by the appropriate child safety seat, booster seat or safety belt.

CHILD RESTRAINT LAW FACTS

All states and the District of Columbia have child safety seat laws with standard enforcement, allowing law enforcement officers to issue a citation when they see a violation of that law. However, 16 states have gaps in their child passenger restraint laws that leave children of some ages or in certain seating positions uncovered by either a child safety seat law or a safety belt law (not including booster seats). Additionally, in some states where older children are covered under the safety belt law, as opposed to under the child safety seat law, the law may be enforced only if the driver violates an additional law.

If states closed all remaining gaps in their child occupant protection laws and all children (age 0-15) were properly restrained 100% of the time, as many as 630 additional children's lives would be saved and another 182,000 serious injuries prevented every year. (Air Bag & Seat Belt Safety Campaign, 1999)

A 1998 Harris poll found that 90% of Americans support increased police enforcement of child restraint laws, and a 2001 Harris Poll found that by a margin of 79% to 17%, the public favors extending state child restraint laws so that children between the ages of four and eight years of age will be required to use a booster seat while riding in a car. (Lou Harris, for Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, 1998, 2001)

Strong safety belt laws protect children. When Louisiana upgraded its safety belt law from secondary to standard enforcement, child restraint use jumped from 45 to 82% even though there was no change in the state's child passenger safety law. (NHTSA, 1999)

July 2004