Most caregivers – parents, relatives, nannies and others tasked with looking after children — are ignoring passenger-safety guidelines, according to a study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
The study’s results in part reflect the difficulty many parents have adhering to safety standards that can seem impractical when everyday variables like busy schedules and recalcitrant children.
Researchers for the medical journal surveyed the use of safety restraints for more than 20,000 children less than 13 years old. The group, which conducted its study from 2007 through 2009, found that many children over age 6 rode in the front seat, including about 25% of 8- to 10-year-olds. Safety guidelines say children should stay in the back seat until they are 13.
Of children surveyed for the study, fewer than 20% of those up to 3 years old were in rear-facing seats even though the majority of the children within this age range in the study were younger than one year old.
After age 7, fewer than 2% of children continued to use booster seats, which are recommended until they are about 4 feet, 9 inches tall – a height few children reach in seven years.
As many parents know, following the rules of child restraints is no simple or easy task. Few guidelines bring this into sharper focus than the American Academy of Pediatrics’ recommendation last year that children remain rear-facing until they are two years old.
Parents with infants and toddlers know it is often difficult to keep them rear-facing past one year, and the notion of a two-year-old riding in a rear-facing seat seems near impossible.
However, child-safety advocates say the stakes are high enough to warrant the added, sometimes painful effort
Researchers say motor vehicle collisions are the leading cause of death among children who are a year old, and for children four and older. More than 140,000 children under 13 are treated in hospital emergency rooms for nonfatal injuries resulting from motor vehicle crashes. Many of the injuries are attributable to improper use of restraints.