AAA Warns Parents: 'The Back Is Where It's At'

17 May 1997
AAA Warns Parents: 'The Back Is Where It's At'

    SAN FRANCISCO, May 16 -- This year, as part of AAA's "Buckle
Up, America! Week" campaign, May 19-26, AAA is emphasizing that the safest
place for children to ride is in the back seat, properly restrained.  "Head-on
crashes cause the greatest number of serious injuries and deaths," says Merry
Banks, Traffic Safety Manager for AAA in northern California.  "The back seat
is the safest place for any passenger at any age, and the farthest away from
the point of impact during a head-on collision."
    According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA),
it's even more important to put children in the back seat of vehicles equipped
with passenger-side air bags.  As of March 7, 1997, 780,000 air bag
deployments have occurred, saving thousands of lives.  Of the 38 children who
died from air bag related injuries, 9 were infants in rear-facing child safety
seats installed against manufacturer recommendations in the front seat of the
air-bag-equipped vehicle, and the other 29 were improperly belted or
restrained.  None were in the back seat.
    Many times the air bag is perceived to be a soft billowy pillow.  The
blast of energy from air bags inflating at speeds up to 200 m.p.h. can injure
or even kill passengers or drivers who are too close to the air bag when it
deploys.  Properly restrained adults will be held in place during the crash
and not come into contact with the air bag until it is fully inflated.
    Each year, nearly 30,000 occupants of passenger cars are killed and
approximately 3 million are injured in crashes.  Since safety belts prevent
fatalities 45% of the time, 10,000 lives annually could be saved if people
were properly restrained.  Nationally, the average use of safety belts is only
68%, Children between the ages of 5 to 15 are buckled-up only 58% of the time.
    Safety experts agree strong enforcement of safety belt laws is essential
to reducing the amount of injuries and deaths related to auto accidents each
year.  California was the first state to upgrade the law from secondary to
primary enforcement and witnessed a 13% increase in safety belt usage.  (Prior
to the new law, officers could only write a citation if the motorist had been
stopped for another violation.)
    CSAA, the AAA affiliate, provides an array of automotive, travel,
financial and insurance services to 3.7 million members in northern
California, Nevada and Utah.

SOURCE  California State Automobile Assocation