Safety seats, booster seats safer for children under 80 pounds, study finds

From staff and wire reports

June 6, 2000
Web posted at: 6:37 p.m. EDT (2237 GMT)

ATLANTA (CNN) -- Children who weigh under 80 pounds and use automobile seat belts are nearly four times more likely to receive serious injury in a collision than kids in safety or booster seats, a study has discovered.

The study in the journal Pediatrics found that 83 percent of 4- to 8-year-olds had graduated to adult seat belts too soon.

"While it's great to get them buckled up in some way, by putting a child in a seat belt too soon - before they're 4-foot-9 or 80 pounds - what that does is put the child in a four times higher risk of head injuries," said study author Flaura Winston of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

Children who don't fit the seat belt properly can hit their heads on their knees, jerk forward and damage their spines, or slide out of the belt altogether.

"What happens with children who are put in seat belts too young," said Winston, "is that their leg is too short, their thigh is too short and they scoot forward on the seat. The shoulder belt fits over their face; the lap portion comes up over their belly. It's not comfortable, besides the fact that it's not safe."

Winston's team looked at 2,077 children ages 2 through 5 involved in vehicle crashes from late 1998 through late 1999. The researchers found that 98 percent were restrained, but 40 percent of those children were protected with a seat belt.

Safety experts recommend children up to age 4 be restrained in child safety seats and those older be placed in booster seats until they are large enough to fit properly in a seat belt, usually by age 9, said the report.

A booster seat allows a child to sit higher and better fit the shoulder belt. Only Washington state requires the use of booster seats.

In another report in the journal, the American Academy of Pediatrics stiffened its prior opposition to off-road vehicles.

The organization, which represents 55,000 primary-care physicians, recommended no one under the age of 16 be allowed to drive an all-terrain vehicle, minibike, trail bike, or moped. Previously, the pediatricians had recommended a ban on off-road vehicles for those under age 14.

"We have decided that if you can't drive a car you shouldn't drive one of these either," said Dr. Susan Tully, an Indianapolis pediatrician who coauthored the policy statement. The group has made similar recommendations against children driving snowmobiles or recreational watercraft like a Jet-Ski, she said.

CNN Correspondent Pat Etheridge and Reuters contributed to this report.

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American Academy of Pediatrics
Pediatrics Abstracts

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