*NATIONAL CHILD PASSENGER SAFETY WEEK*
Moms View Message Board: Parenting Discussion: Archive January-June 2004:
*NATIONAL CHILD PASSENGER SAFETY WEEK*
Surprise! It's me! LOL! I'll be posting CPS resources and information throughout the week. For starters...
AAP CPS Week
National Center for Injury Prevention Control CPS Week
Infants should stay rear facing until at least 12 mos. AND 20 lbs.
http://www.parentsplace.com/babies/safety/articles/0,,240282_263876-1,00.html
Rear-facing car seats: What you need to know
by Kathleen Weber
Common Misunderstanding
There are many misunderstandings and misconceptions about the crash environment that lead even the best-intentioned parent or pediatrician to believe a child is "safe" facing forward when s/he is still very young. These come from obsolete ideas and advice that may still appear in older pamphlets and pediatric literature but that have been updated in recent years.
The most prevalent misunderstanding is the idea that muscle strength and control have anything to do with whether it is reasonable to face a child forward and subject his/her neck to the extreme forces pulling the head away from the body in a frontal crash.
Crash Dynamics
This will be a somewhat technical explanation, but it is an important concept to understand. When a car hits something else at, say, 25 miles per hour to 30mph, it will come to a stop at a deceleration rate of about 20 or 25G. But, due to the time lag between when the vehicle stops and the occupants eventually do, the head of a forward-facing adult or child may experience as much as 60 or 70G.
Physiological Impact
Even strong neck muscles of military volunteers cannot make a difference in such an environment. Rather it is the rigidity of the bones in the neck, in combination with the connecting ligaments, that determines whether the spine will hold together and the spinal cord will remain intact within the confines of the vertebral column.
This works for adults, but very young children have immature and incompletely ossified bones that are soft and will deform and/or separate under tension, leaving the spinal cord as the last link between the head and the torso. Have you ever pulled an electric cord from the socket by the cord instead of the plug and broken the wires? Same problem.
This scenario is based on actual physiological measures. According to Huelke et. al. (1), "In autopsy specimens the elastic infantile vertebral bodies and ligaments allow for column elongation of up to two inches, but the spinal cord ruptures if stretched more than 1/4 inch." Real accident experience has also shown that a young child's skull can be literally ripped from its spine by the force of a crash. Yes, the body is being held in place, but the head is not. Is it a statistically rare event? Yes. If it's my child, does it matter that it's rare?
Facing Directions
When a child is facing rearward, the head is cradled and moves in unison with the body, so that there is little or no relative motion that might pull on the connecting neck.
Another aspect of the facing-direction issue that is often overlooked is the additional benefit a child gains in a side impact. Crash testing and field experience have both shown that the head of a child facing rearward is captured by the child restraint shell in side and frontal-oblique crashes, while that of a forward-facing child is thrown forward, around, and often outside the confines of the side wings. This can make the difference between a serious or fatal head injury and not.
Turn-Around Time
There are no magical or visible signals to tell us, parents or pediatricians when the risk of facing forward in a crash is sufficiently low to warrant the change, and, when a parent drives around for months or years without a serious crash, the positive feedback that the system they have chosen "works" is very difficult to overcome. When in doubt, however, it's always better to keep the child facing rearward.
In the research and accident review(2) that I did a few years ago, the data seemed to break at about 12 months between severe consequences and more moderate consequences for the admittedly rare events of injury to young children facing forward that we were able to identify. One year old is also a nice benchmark, and the shift to that benchmark in the last few years has kept many kids in a safer environment longer and has probably saved some lives, some kids from paralysis and some parents from terrible grief.
Leg Length
As a side comment, some convertible child restraints indicate in their instructions that a child should face forward when his/her feet touch the vehicle seatback, or alternately when the legs must be bent. This prohibition is not justified by any accident experience or any laboratory evidence, and we are hoping that these instructions will soon be revised. The only physical limit on rear-facing use is when the child's head approaches the top of the restraint shell. At this point, s/he should be moved to a rear-facing convertible restraint, or, if the child is already using one, to its forward-facing configuration.
Parents and pediatricians need to know the real reasons for the current push to keep babies rear-facing to at least one year of age, in order to be able to make an informed judgment. Perhaps this will help spread the word.
Kathleen Weber is the Director of the Child Passenger Protection Research Program at the University of Michigan Medical School
More info here:
Rear Facing - Unmatched Safety
Compact pickups: Extra risk for young
Children riding in backseats of extended-cab models had a high injury rate in accidents, a Phila. hospital study found.
By Susan FitzGerald
Inquirer Staff Writer
Children riding in the backseats of compact extended-cab pickup trucks are almost five times more likely to be injured in the event of a crash than children riding in rear seats of other vehicles, according to a study by researchers at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
"Parents with a choice of vehicles available to transport their children
should not use compact pickup trucks," concludes the study, which analyzed
nearly 7,200 crashes that involved more than 11,000 children in
Pennsylvania, New Jersey and 13 other states.
The study, in today's Journal of the American Medical Association, cited
several reasons that the rear seats of compact extended-cab pickups are
dangerous for children, even if they wear seat belts:
The cabs are small, increasing the chances that a child will strike
something in a crash, and the interiors are not well-padded. Also, the
backseats tend to be fold-down jump seats, often side-facing, with lap
belts only, and do not allow for children to be properly restrained,
researchers said.
"This is just not an optimal vehicle for children," said Dr. Flaura
Winston, a Children's Hospital researcher who headed the study. "Children
are more likely to be injured and more likely to be hospitalized with
injuries."
The study's conclusions were not disputed by a trade group.
"We specifically tell consumers not to use pickup trucks as family
vehicles," said Eron Shosteck, a spokesman for the Alliance of Automobile
Manufacturers, a coalition of 13 automakers. "They can use SUVs, minivans
and passenger cars to transport the family. Pickup trucks are designed to
be work vehicles, and they should only be used in that manner."
Last year, 908,845 compact pickup trucks, both regular-cab and extended-cab
models, were sold in the United States, according to Ward's AutoInfoBank,
an auto-industry database.
The study is part of an ongoing effort at Children's Hospital to improve
safety by examining the causes of child injuries and fatalities in vehicle
accidents. In a project funded by State Farm insurance company and drawing
on claims information from the insurance firm, researchers at Children's
Hospital and the University of Pennsylvania have collected data on 150,000
crashes involving more than 220,000 children. They have looked at issues
such as seat belts and the use of car seats and booster seats.
The hazards of riding in the cargo area of pickup trucks were already
well-documented, but the Children's Hospital researchers examined how
children fared in crashes when they were riding in the cabs.
Among the compact extended-cab pickups included in the data were models of
the Ford Ranger, Chevrolet S-10, Dodge Dakota and Toyota Tacoma, according
to Children's Hospital researchers. The study involved trucks manufactured
from 1990 onward and crashes that happened between December 1998 and
November 2000.
Overall, the risk of injury was almost three times greater for children
riding in compact extended-cab pickups than for children in other vehicles.
The dangers were particularly great for backseat riders: The risk of injury
was 4.75 times greater for children in the compact pickups compared with
children in other vehicles.
The differences in injury rates between compact extended-cab pickups and
other vehicles were less pronounced when children were seated in the front
seat, but Winston said front seats should not be an option for children.
"Everyone knows that the front seat is a dangerous place for kids, and
that's true for compact pickup trucks, too," she said.
Winston estimated that 13,000 crashes a year involved children in compact
extended-cab pickups. State Farm records show that about 75 percent of
people who own compact pickups also have a second vehicle, indicating they
have an alternative for driving their children around, she said.
Aftermarket Products
Are you using an unsafe product on or with your car seat? You might be if you are using an aftermarket product.
An aftermarket product is anything that is not sold with your car seat. Shoulder belt positioning devices, seat belt tightening devices, head cushions and car seat covers are considered unsafe aftermarket products. It is never recommended that you use anything extra with your car seat without the express consent of the car seat manufacturer.
For more information on some unsafe aftermarket products, visit these pages:
Shoulder Belt Positioning Devices
Seat Belt Tighteners
SAFE KIDS REPORT REVEALS DRAMATIC IMPROVEMENTS IN CHILD OCCUPANT PROTECTION LAWS SINCE 2001
Despite Progress, More Than Half of States Still Do Not Protect
Booster-Aged Children
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) - In a report released today in observance of
Child Passenger Safety Week (Feb. 8-14), the National SAFE KIDS
Campaign announced that 27 states have upgraded their child occupant
protection laws since 2001, with 23 states (up from only two) now
covering booster seat-aged children.
Closing the Gaps Across the Map: A Progress Report on SAFE KIDS'
Efforts to Improve Child Occupant Protection Laws reviews
improvements to child occupant protection laws since a study just
three years ago found startling gaps in coverage related to age,
seating position and lack of appropriate child safety seat use. While
there have been dramatic strides in changing our laws, more than half
of states still do not adequately protect booster-aged children.
"This tremendous legislative success can only be rivaled by amount of
activity that took place in the early 1980s when states first began
to enact child passenger safety laws. We applaud the dedication of
countless advocates, state legislators and governors who worked
tirelessly in 27 states to upgrade their laws," said Heather Paul,
Ph.D., executive director, National SAFE KIDS Campaign. "We know
strong child passenger safety laws are a proven deterrent to the
number one killer of kids, motor vehicle crashes. However, we're
disconcerted to know that the majority of states still don't mandate
that kids ride in booster seats."
In 2001, the National SAFE KIDS Campaign launched a five-year
initiative to improve state child occupant protection laws. For the
past three years, SAFE KIDS coalitions and chapters have worked with
government agencies, safety organizations, law enforcement agencies
and state legislatures nationwide to close the gaps and strengthen
child occupant protection laws.
The progress report reflects successes at the mid-point of SAFE KIDS'
initiative, with the goal of having every state significantly upgrade
its child restraint law by 2006.
Findings include:
· More than half of states (26 and the District of Columbia)
have upgraded their child occupant protection laws.
· Twenty-two states and the District of Columbia now have
booster seat laws that require older children to use appropriate
child safety seats, as opposed to two states (California and
Washington) in February 2001.
· Thirty-one states, on average, introduced legislation each
year from 2001 through 2003 to improve their child passenger safety
laws.
· One state only (Wisconsin) did not introduce a bill from 2001
to 2003 to better protect children traveling in motor vehicles.
"The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration applauds the
National SAFE KIDS Campaign for working to improve our nation's child
passenger safety laws," said Dr. Jeffrey W. Runge, administrator,
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. "By drawing attention
to the gap between best safety practices and states' laws, SAFE KIDS
coalitions have taken a major step forward in making the highways
safer for children, our most precious asset."
In recognition of Child Passenger Safety Week, SAFE KIDS coalitions
will host over 200 child safety seat checkup events, reaching an
estimated 10,000 children across the country. Also, nearly 30
coalitions have been awarded legislative and enforcement grants
totaling $50,000 to partner with government agencies, state
legislatures and enforcement agencies to strengthen or promote their
child occupant protection laws.
"The National Transportation Safety Board is squarely behind making
children safer in all types of transportation and strongly supports
the efforts of the SAFE KIDS coalitions," said Ellen Engleman
Conners, chairman, National Transportation Safety Board. "We are
working diligently with groups like SAFE KIDS to get our Most Wanted
List of child safety initiatives implemented. Together we have
chalked up some successes, but there is much more work to do."
"Great strides have been made in the last two decades in increasing
restraint use by adults and children, but more must be done,
particularly in upgrading our state laws," said Robert C. Lange,
executive director, safety structure and integration, General Motors
Corporation. "We commend our partner, SAFE KIDS, and many others who
are working hard both to upgrade state child passenger safety laws
and to increase awareness about the importance of booster seats for
our children."
Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of unintentional injury-
related death among children ages 14 and under. Nearly 1,600 children
ages 14 and under die in motor vehicle crashes each year and close to
228,000 children are injured.
Closing the Gaps Across the Map: A Progress Report on SAFE KIDS'
Efforts to Improve Child Occupant Protection Laws can be found at
www.safekids.org. For more information about the SAFE KIDS BUCKLE UP
program, visit the Web site or call the toll-free hotline at (800)
441-1888 to find a child safety seat checkup event near you.
What Kind of Seat Does Your Child Need?
Five-Point Harness or Shield? Choosing a Safer Seat
 
Convertible child safety seats (seats that rear-face and forward-face, generally from 5 lbs to 40 lbs) have one of three types of harness systems:
Five point harness - two shoulder straps, two hip straps and a crotch strap
T-shield - two shoulder straps connected to a flat, t-shaped rubber shield that buckles at the crotch
Overhead shield - large bar or tray that swings over the head - two shoulder straps attach to the bar, then another strap comes down to buckle at the crotch
Expert Statements on harness types
American Academy of Pediatrics: If using a convertible seat for a small infant, the best choice for a more secure fit is the 5-point harness. A shield could contact a small baby's face directly in a crash.
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA): Shields are not recommended for newborns. When selecting a convertible seat for a newborn, choose one without a t-shield or tray shield in front of the baby. The shield comes up too high on the newborn and may make proper adjustment of the harness difficult.
SafetyBeltSafe USA: Convertible seats come with three harness styles: five-point, T-shield, or tray-shield. If a convertible seat is used from birth, it is important to choose one with a simple, five-point harness instead of a harness with an attached shield. The five-point harness can be adjusted to fit almost all sizes and shapes of children up to 40 pounds.
A harness system with a shield is not appropriate for a baby, since the shield lies in front of the face or neck and holds the harness straps away from the baby's body. A 5-point harness has several advantages for child of any age or size. The straps are placed on the child's shoulders and low on the hips, so that crash forces are absorbed by the strongest parts of the child's body instead of the soft abdomen. If the child is husky, a T-shield may press on chubby thighs, while a tray-shield may squeeze the tummy. In smaller cars, it may be hard to remove the child if the tray-shield cannot be raised completely.
Safety experts have concerns about CRs with shields. Tray shields usually are not covered with energy-absorbing padding to protect the head if it hits the shield. This contact is more likely with a shorter child and a loose harness. In a test series with a 12-month-size dummy, peak head acceleration was 35% higher for tray shield restraints than for 5-point harnesses. At least one child (19 lb) is known to have received a fatal head injury from contact with a tray shield. For T-shields, there is a concern that the throat of a small child may be injured from contact with the top of the shield during a crash. In the same series of crash tests, neck forces were 40% higher for T-shields than for 5-point harnesses, and the crotch load with T-shields was 2.7 times higher than with 5-points.
Dr. Michael Sachs and Stephanie Tombrello ("Car Seat Safety: Buckling Up Isn't Always Enough"): There are four basic designs of internal harness systems that secure children in their safety seats. If the seat meets or exceeds all applicable U.S. Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, then the type of harness chosen becomes a matter of personal preference, although most child passenger safety experts agree that the five-point harness generally provides the best protection for the widest range of children.
Automotive Coalition for Traffic Safety, INC.: Some models have 5-point harness systems that secure at both shoulders, across the upper thighs and between the legs. Others use a harness/T-shield combination that attaches two shoulder straps to a "T" shaped padded tray or shield, which attaches between the legs. Still others use a harness/tray shield combination. Because of concerns that the harnesses may not keep the baby's upper body properly positioned and that the baby's head or face may contact the shield in a crash, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) does not recommend child safety seats with tray shields for small children.
Child Passenger Safety experts agree that the Five-Point Harness is the safest, because it provides the snuggest fit and is suitable for the widest range of children.
Why use a five point harness?
Five-point harnessed car seats offer a much snugger harness fit than a shielded seat. In all five-point harness seats, the straps come down over the shoulders and across the hips to fasten to the buckle that comes up between the legs. The harness sits snugly against the bony parts of the pelvis (the crotch and hip straps) and across the shoulders and rib cage (the shoulder straps). When a child moves forward in the seat, as they would in a crash, the properly tightened harness is already "holding" the child and it immediately restrains them, spreading the crash force out across the strong bones of the body. There is nothing to impact; nothing for the child to suddenly hit. The child does not move before loading the restraint.
Tray-shield and t-shield seats simply cannot restrain a child as snugly as a five-point harness. Current motor vehicle safety standards require a "lap restraint" for all car seats. On tray- and t-shield seats, the shield acts as the lap portion of the restraint. However, these shields do not fasten snugly across a child's pelvis as a five-point harness does, and they do not adjust to the contours of the child's body. This allows more forward and side to side movement than a five-point harness does - both before and during a crash. The tray-shield generally sits at chest level, several inches away from the child. The t-shield is buckled in at a set distance from the child and sits at chest or abdomen level. The straps that go over the child's shoulder and between their legs are either attached to the tray or top of the t-shield, attached to the rigid crotch buckle, or attached to webbing that attaches to the tray. These designs can allow the shoulder straps to be pulled away from the child's body. Any space between the child's body and the shield allow the child to gain a great deal of momentum before s/he is restrained. That restraint is not merely composed of soft harness webbing that stretches to absorb crash force, but a hard, unyielding plastic bar or hard molded rubber. The thin amount of padding material on that bar or the imagined softness of the rubber is not going to make any difference or provide a soft cushion in a 35 mph collision. The design of tray- and t-shield car seats depends on the child impacting those shields - it's part of the restraint. In a crash, the force of the collision will propel the child's body forward. There's no way to determine which part of the child's body will impact the tray or t. Maybe they'll be "close enough" to it that they only end up with bruised ribs or a bumped nose. Maybe they won't be so close and they'll break their jaw, break their ribs, or damage their spleen. ER and trauma nurses can account for the numerous head, chest and abdominal injuries they've seen in children who've "impacted" tray and t-shields at a high rate of speed.
It is known that at least one child has died from a fatal head injury caused when her head struck a tray-shield. There have been other reported injuries and possibly deaths (matters under investigation or litigation).
Why are shield seats for sale?
Tray-shield and t-shield seats pass the required federal safety standards, just as five-point harness seats do, and they are perfectly legal to buy and sell. It must be understood that the federal safety standards are minimal - currently only a frontal crash test with a partially instrumented dummy is required. In addition, the crash test dummies that are used in these tests are not children. Where a child is soft and flexible, a dummy is more rigid. Where a child will move and squirm in a seat, a dummy stays in the same place. The difference between five-point harness seats and tray- and t-shield seats is that real world crash experience shows us that children in five-point harness seats have less potential for injury than those in tray- and t-shield seats. T-shield seats have been discontinued by all manufacturers; tray-shield seats are still widely available.
Tray-shield seats continue to be popular sellers for two reasons:
Most retail stores give the impression that a tray-shield seat is a "better" seat when they carry more -tray-shield seats than five point harness seats. The majority of car seat retailers carry a larger selection of tray-shield seats.
Those purchasing a seat may assume that the tray-shield provides a measure of safety, believing that it is actually putting a barrier of protection between their child and any danger. In reality, the tray is only cosmetic; even the car seat manufacturers will tell you this.
These mistakes contribute to a vicious cycle where consumers buy tray-shield seats because they are stocked and retailers stock tray-shield seats because they are bought.
Above information taken from CPSafety.com
BOOSTER SEATS
Did you know kids are safest riding in a belt positioning booster until they are about 8 yrs./80 lbs./4'9"?
Seat belts are not designed for children. Young children are too small for seat belts and too large for toddler seats. A booster seat raises your child up so that the seat belt fits right—and can better protect your child. The shoulder belt should cross the child's chest and rest snugly on the shoulder, and the lap belt should rest low across the pelvis or hip area—never across the stomach area. Your child's ears shouldn't be higher than the vehicle's seat back cushion or the back of a high-back booster seat.
More booster information at these sites:
BoosterSeat.gov
BoostAmerica.org
NHTSA - Boosters
Boosters are for big kids - 5 Step Test
Wednesday, February 11, 2004
Survey Finds Nearly 73 Percent of Child Restraints Misused
NHTSA Launches New Campaign to Promote Booster Seat Use
Child restraint use is up, but improper use of these safety devices continues to be high, and that’s why the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is launching a new campaign to get parents to use the seats and use them correctly. Nearly 73 percent of all child restraints are improperly used, needlessly exposing children to an increased risk of death or injury.
But child restraint use has increased considerably since a similar study in the mid-1990s looked at restraint use for children weighing 60 pounds or less. Between then and now, restraint use has increased from 50.6 percent to 71.5 percent for children in that weight category. Tragically, nearly 12 percent of children were completely unrestrained – and thus at great risk, according to NHTSA.
“Child safety seats are very effective when used properly,” said NHTSA Administrator Jeffrey W. Runge, M.D. “Parents and caregivers should take time to understand how to better protect children of all ages.”
Data for the study were collected in the fall of 2002 for 5,527 children weighing less than 80 pounds in 4,126 vehicles in six states: Arizona, Florida, Mississippi, Missouri, Pennsylvania, and Washington. (The current study differed from its predecessor in the weight range of children observed, with the earlier study looking at children under 60 pounds rather than 80 pounds.)
Researchers also found:
* That 62.3 percent of these children were restrained in a child restraint system and 25.9 percent were restrained with a safety belt.
* That overall misuse was 72.6 percent. The most common critical abuses were loose harness straps securing the child and a loose vehicle safety belt attachment to the child restraint.
* A positive relationship between drivers using safety belts and children being restrained: 92 percent of the children who were transported by belted drivers were restrained, compared to only 62 percent of the children transported by unbelted drivers.
Earlier this week, NHTSA launched a new public service advertising campaign with the Ad Council to help educate parents of young children who have outgrown child safety seats. The campaign tells parents that the next step after child safety seats is not an adult safety belt but a booster seat. At least 4 out of 5 children who should ride in booster seats currently do not.
--more--
NHTSA recommends that children up to 40 pounds and ages 4 through 8 be placed in an appropriate child seat instead of a safety belt, unless they are taller than 4 feet 9 inches.
“Safety belts are not designed to fit smaller children,” Runge said. “Booster seats remedy that problem by positioning the belt where it is most effective.”
For more information on the booster seat campaign, visit www.boosterseat.gov . The “Misuse of Child Restraints” report is available at www.nhtsa.dot.gov .
Common Child Passenger Safety Mistakes
http://www.parents.com/articles/health/5198.jsp
http://www.parentcenter.com/refcap/health/safety/40014.html
Recommended Car Seats and a Compatibility Database (where you can look up your specific vehicle(s) to see how different car seats fit) at these sites...
CarSeatData.org
CarSeatSite.com
Car-Safety.org
Many CPS Technicians and Advocates post here and are very helpful and informative. A great place to go with questions and concerns about car seats and child passenger safety. There is also a section where good deals and sales on car seats are posted.
Car Seats Message Board
Let's try that CarSeatSite.com link again...
CarSeatSite.com
Thread spammed 7/29/06
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