NEW YORK, Sep 08 (Reuters) -- A study of fatal car crashes finds that just 56% of children under 10 years of age were either buckled up or placed in infant car seats at the time of the accident. Older children were more likely to have been riding unrestrained, according to the study authors.
"Local, state, and national efforts must be aimed at increasing (vehicle) occupant protection for the entire family," conclude researchers at the University of California in Irvine. Their report appears in the online edition of the journal Pediatrics (www.pediatrics.org).
The investigators examined 1994 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration records on nearly 2,900 vehicle crashes. All the vehicles contained at least one child under 10 years of age at the time of the accident, and each accident claimed the life of at least one vehicle occupant.
The authors found that seat belt use during these fatal crashes declined with the increasing age of the child. "The highest restraint use (71%) was among 1-year-olds," they point out, "while the lowest restraint use was 47% among 9-year-olds." They note that a third of infant passengers were not strapped into a child safety seat at the time of the crash.
Increases in the number of passengers per vehicle tended to discourage the use of seat belts, the investigators note. They found that 72% of children were restrained when riding with the driver alone. However, the buckle-up rate dropped to just 12% when children were riding with nine other individuals.
"Lack of available seating positions did not fully explain this trend," the researchers explain, since "restraint use also decreased with an increasing number of occupants in large vans." They believe that the finding is "disconcerting, as one might expect that the influence of others in the vehicle might be a positive influence for restraining children."
Child seat belt and safety seat use was lower in older vehicles, and in larger vans and pickup trucks, compared with newer and smaller vehicles, according to the study. The authors speculate that some of these vehicles may have less-comfortable safety belt systems, or have restraint systems that may not be compatible with some types of infant safety seats.
The researchers found that the percentage of children using seat belts or car seats fell during nighttime (60%) as compared with daytime (23%) driving. They speculate that "night travel may involve longer trips on different types of roadways than daylight travel, and children may be allowed to ride unrestrained so they can lie down and sleep during the late hours."
The California authors did find that "a restrained driver was three times more likely to restrain a child" than drivers who did not use seat belts themselves. Educational and law-enforcement efforts that encourage drivers to buckle-up could have positive effects on the safety of children as well, the researchers conclude.
SOURCE: Pediatrics electronic pages 1998;102:e39.
