Car Seats and Child Passenger Safety
February is Child Passenger Safety Month. It has been shown that car safety seats are highly effective in reducing death and injury due to motor vehicle crashes. According to National Highway Traffic Safety Administrator, car safety seats are 71% effective in reducing deaths for infants and 54% effective in reducing deaths for children ages 1 to 4 years. Belt-positioning booster seats reduce the risk of injury by 59% for children ages 4 through 7 years.
With the controversy surrounding the Consumer Reports frontal and side-impact crash tests conducted on rear-facing infant-only car safety seats and some states questioning whether to raise the age or height limitations of children remaining in car seats, here are some experts from Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center who can explain the benefits of keeping your child in a car seat for as long as possible:
- Victor Garcia, MD, trauma services director and pediatric surgeon, has several publications, research grants and chapters on injury prevention initiatives, including injuries related to airbag deployment, and child passenger safety initiatives for children of African-American communities or who are at high-risk and preschool age.
- Michael Gittelman, MD, FAAP, is attending physician in emergency medicine and with the Injury Free Coalition. His area of expertise is within the field of injury control. Currently, he is the program chairperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics' Section on Injury and Poison Prevention and he serves as a Co-Director for the Injury Free Coalition for Kids in Greater Cincinnati (IFCK). He is involved in resident education on injury prevention, in particular relating to sports safety, firearm safety, playground safety, drowning prevention and toy safety. His works with high-risk communities, utilizing the IFCK model, in an effort to mobilize communities to reduce pediatric injuries has been well recognized. He has completed several research studies within the field of injury prevention and he is nationally recognized within this field.
- Susan Laurence, injury prevention coordinator, is certified by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration as a technical instructor on child passenger safety, including car seats. Susan is also an Occupant Protection Regional Coordinator for the Ohio Governor's Highway Safety Office and provides leadership for our surrounding eight counties. She has participated in child passenger safety research projects with the Trauma Service and has had several abstracts accepted for presentation at both state and national Child Passenger Safety Conferences. In 2005, she received the "Hero Award" at the KIDZ IN MOTION National Child Passenger Safety Conference. Susan developed the Fitting Station Program in the Greater Cincinnati area.
