DOT Names Blue Ribbon Panel to Investigate Safety for Kids in Cars
19 November 1998
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, November 19, 1998
NHTSA 75-98
Highway Passenger Safety
BLUE RIBBON PANEL NAMED
FOR PROTECTING FORGOTTEN CHILDREN'
Noting that traffic crashes are the leading cause of death to
American children of every age from 5 to 16 years old, U.S. Secretary of
Transportation Rodney E. Slater today announced a blue ribbon panel of
experts charged to identify ways that these forgotten children can be
protected while in motor vehicles.
"Safety is President Clinton's number-one priority, and all of us
at DOT will continue to work vigilantly to ensure our children are
buckled up," Secretary Slater said.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
(NHTSA), six out of 10 children who die in passenger vehicle crashes are
unbelted. In 1997, an average of seven children under age 15 died and
908 were injured every day in motor vehicle crashes. Gaps in child
passenger safety laws often leave children ages 4 to 16 unprotected; only
one state, Alaska, requires all children from birth to age 16 to be
properly restrained in all seating positions.
"Kids aren't buckling up. Restraint use is actually decreasing
as children get older. While restraint use for infants is 85 percent,
restraint use for children ages 4 to 16 is only 64 percent. Children are
being moved into adult seat belts too soon," NHTSA Administrator Ricardo
Martinez, M.D., said.
Philip Haseltine, president of the American Coalition for Traffic
Safety, will schedule and moderate the meetings. Participants will
include representatives from the auto and child restraint industries;
medical, health, law enforcement, safety, and child development
organizations; intergovernmental elected officials; state, national, and
federal agencies; and a public education advertising agency.
"The issues confronting this panel are not easy to resolve. But,
by examining education strategies, legislation and law enforcement issues
as well as product design issues related to booster seats and
after-market products, we will develop meaningful recommendations to
increase the safety of America's children when they are passengers in
motor vehicles," Haseltine said.
Findings from a NHTSA telephone survey indicate that only 29
percent of children weighing 40 pounds or more were said to be in booster
seats all the time. Most of these children reportedly used seat belts
all the time. Because of their size, children do not fit properly into
adult belts until they are approximately eight years old and between 60
and 80 pounds. A separate NHTSA study based on actual observations
showed that of the children who had outgrown their child safety seat, at
about age 4 and 40 pounds, only six percent were in booster seats.
The Blue Ribbon Passenger Safety Panel will also explore problems
of gaps in child passenger safety laws that often leave the children in
the ages 4 to 16 unprotected. In many states seat belts can be
substituted for child restraints, or a 10-year-old can ride legally in
the back seat unrestrained because laws apply only to front seat
occupants. Many states fail to address the issue of children as
passengers in the cargo area of pickup trucks. Other gaps such as
exemptions for overcrowded vehicles (car pooling from school), exemptions
if the driver is not the child's legal guardian, and exemptions for
out-of-state vehicles make it even more difficult to reduce injuries,
NHTSA said.
The panel will present its recommendations and strategies for
children ages 4 to 16 in the following three areas:
* Marketing and Public Education: Educate parents and care givers on the
importance of booster seats and to generate peer programs for increasing
seat belt use among older children.
* Legislation and Enforcement: Close gaps in child passenger safety laws
and seat belt laws, as these laws often leave children ages 4 to 16
unprotected; encourage high visibility enforcement of child passenger
safety laws.
* Product Design and Implications: Improve booster seat design for safety
and comfort; develop recommendations for the use of after market
products, some of which currently have no safety performance standards
for their use yet are designed to improve safety belt fit.
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