Child passenger safety

In the United States during 2008, 968 children ages 14 years and younger died as occupants in motor vehicle crashes, and approximately 168,000 were injured.

What are the causes of injury to children?

• More than two-thirds of fatally injured children were killed while riding with a drunk driver.
• Restraint use among young children often depends upon the driver's seat belt use. Almost 40% of children riding with unbelted drivers were themselves unrestrained.
• Child restraint systems are often used incorrectly. One study found that 72% of nearly 3,500 observed car and booster seats were misused in a way that could be expected to increase a child's risk of injury during a crash.

How can injuries to children in motor vehicles be prevented?

• Child safety seats reduce the risk of death in passenger cars by 71% for infants, and by 54% for toddlers ages 1 to 4 years.
• There is strong evidence that child safety seat laws, safety seat distribution and education programs, community-wide education and enforcement campaigns, and incentive-plus education programs are effective in increasing child safety seat use.
• The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recommends booster seats for children until they are at least 8 years of age or 4'9" tall.
• According to researchers at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, for children 4 to 7 years, booster seats reduce injury risk by 59% compared to seat belts alone.
• All children ages 12 years and younger should ride in the back seat. Riding in the back seat is associated with a 40% reduction in the risk of serious injury for children ages 16 and younger. Putting children in the back seat eliminates the injury risk of deployed front passenger-side airbags and places children in the safest part of the vehicle in the event of a crash. Adults should avoid placing children in front of airbags.
• Overall, for children less than 16 years, riding in the back seat is associated with a 40% reduction in the risk of serious injury. To learn more about effective interventions to increase child safety seat use.

• Truck + car accidents
• Medical malpractice
• Drug liability
• Wrongful death claims
• Construction accidents
• Nursing home injuries
• Pharmacy + prescription errors
• ATV injuries
• Defective product claims
• Consumer class action
• Aviation incidents
• Injuries to children
  • Playground injuries
  • Dog bites
  • Water-related injuries
  • Fireworks-related injuries
  • Child passenger safety
• Train accidents