According to the Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (“NHTSA”), more than a third of children under age 13 who died in passenger vehicle crashes in 2011 were not in car seats or wearing seat belts.
Motor vehicle crashes remain a leading cause of death for children. In 2011, almost two children under the age of 13 were killed and 338 were injured every day while riding in cars, SUVs, pickups, and vans. Of the children killed, the percentage of unrestrained fatalities, with no car seat or seat belt, varied by vehicle type, with greater percentages of unrestrained fatalities occurring in larger vehicles: SUVs (55 percent), pick-ups (43 percent), vans (40 percent), and cars (24 percent).
“Regardless of the size of the vehicle, the age of the child or the length of the trip, children should always be properly restrained in a car seat, booster, or seat belt,” said NHTSA Administrator David Strickland. “Car seats, when correctly installed and used, provide proven life-saving and injury-reducing benefits for child passengers.”
From 1975 through 2011, NHTSA estimates that approximately 10,000 lives were saved by child restraints for children under the age of five in passenger vehicles, with more than 260 lives saved in 2011 alone.
Victoria Spears
Victoria Prussen Spears is senior vice president of Meyerowitz Communications Inc., a law firm marketing communications consulting company. A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and Brooklyn Law School, Ms. Spears was an attorney at a leading New York City law firm before joining Meyerowitz Communications. She may be contacted at [email protected].