A new study from researchers at Ohio State's College of Medicine finds more than half of children treated in hospitals after a car crash are injured because they were not wearing seat belts nor properly secured in a car seat. Dr. Gretchen Baker is a member of that research team and spoke with Morning Edition Host Stu Osborne about the study.
Stu Osborne: One stat that really jumped out to me was that 39% of children in the study did not use any type of restraint. How did you and your team react to that finding?
Dr. Gretchen Baker: Yeah, so that's definitely a finding that we're never really happy to see. Unfortunately, when we look at different data sources we do see that there are still a number of kids that are not using any type of restraint. So that's really an area that we are going to continue to focus on in terms of education and outreach.
Stu Osborne: The study also shows 19% use the wrong type of restraint based on their age, height and weight. What factors do you think might attribute to that?
Dr. Gretchen Baker: The most frequent thing that we saw were children transitioning from using a car seat or a booster seat to the seat belt too early. And we actually saw this most frequently for children between 4 and 10 years old. We really want to encourage caregivers to make sure that you're always following the manufacturer instructions for your specific car seat and that kids should really be reaching the maximum height or weight of their particular car seat before transitioning to that next phase of restraint.
Stu Osborne: Do you think some of this may be, you know, first-time parents may not know the proper things or do you think there are any socioeconomic factors in this?
Dr. Gretchen Baker: Yeah, there's a lot of different factors at play here, but when we kind of look broadly at these big data sources, we really want to just make sure that all caregivers kind of know that there are good education and resources out there. We definitely recommend reaching out to your car seat manufacturer if you have specific questions. And we also recommend looking to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the American Academy of Pediatrics for the most up-to-date recommendations.
Stu Osborne: I know a lot of local fire departments, if you reach out to them, they'll in fact help you install those car seats. Is that another resource that you think people should take advantage of if they have that in their community?
Dr. Gretchen Baker: That's another great resource to mention. There are opportunities to schedule either in-person or virtual car seat check appointments with certified child passenger safety technicians. So often local fire departments have certified child passengers safety technicians kind of on their staff as well. So we'd recommend either reaching out to your local public health department, or using the find a car seat inspection tool on the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration website to find a certified child passenger safety technician in your area.
Stu Osborne: I know the majority of your study focused on children up to the age of 13. I have a 15 year old daughter who has some friends that are now driving age. And the one thing I always stress to her before she leaves is to make sure that you put on your seatbelt. How important is it for young drivers who are just starting to get out there on the roads to follow this guidance and make sure the first thing they do when they get in their car is put on their seatbelt?
Dr. Gretchen Baker: Your seatbelt is kind of your first and best line of defense, if anything were ever to happen while you were traveling in your vehicle. And that's true for adults, for teens, for older children that have transitioned from using a booster seat to the seatbelt. And the seat belt is really important because it helps to kind of provide that security in the case of a crash. So we really want it placed on kind of the strong parts of the skeleton to provide that restraint and reduce your risk of injury during a crash.
