Panel to Urge Car Safety Standards for Children
WASHINGTON — Striving to save the lives of hundreds of children a year, a blue-ribbon federal panel today will urge a combination of tougher state laws and tighter parental supervision for children ages 4 to 14 riding in automobiles.
The commission will also call for boosting the federal gasoline tax by half a cent per gallon to raise funds to study highway safety.
Recent traffic safety efforts have focused successfully on very young children and teenage drivers. Death rates for infants in cars, for example, dropped 18% from 1987 to 1995.
But death and injury rates are still rising for the “forgotten children†in between. The 28-member commission was appointed by Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater to look at this group, and he will receive its report today.
The panel will recommend calling on all states to pass laws requiring that all children wear seat belts. California already has such a law, but many other state laws apply only to children who are riding in the front seat or whose parents are driving. Still other states exempt passengers from out of state.
And the commission will recommend that parents put children who weigh 40 to 80 pounds (roughly ages 4 to 9) in well-padded booster seats that increase the protection afforded by adult-size seat belts.
Not to be confused with child seats for infants and toddlers, the boosters improve the fit between a small child and a large seat belt. Only 5% of children now ride in booster seats, which can cost $40 to $100 and are meant to be installed in the back seat.
“I think a year from now we will see substantially more parents using booster seats than we do today,†said Phil Haseltine, chairman of the panel. “A lot of parents don’t even know they exist now.â€
The expense and unfamiliarity of booster seats could make them controversial with parents, but Haseltine, head of the auto industry-funded American Coalition for Traffic Safety, predicted they eventually would be required by state laws, as child seats are now.
Additionally, the panel will propose using the $750 million that would be generated annually by a half-cent increase in the gasoline tax for research, education and enforcement, and for the development of a crash test dummy the size of a 10-year-old.
Motor vehicle accidents are the leading cause of death among children older than 1. In 1997, according to the commission, of the 1,627 children ages 4 to 14 killed in car crashes, 60% were not wearing seat belts. Studies show that children are less likely to wear seat belts the older they are.
“The type of progress we have seen with the very youngest can be had with the 5- to 10-year-olds and even the 10- to 14-year-olds,†said Dr. Kyran Quinlan, a pediatrician with the government’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control in Atlanta. “It’s a shame that it hasn’t happened, because the technology and the know-how are there.â€
That’s the message that government and safety advocates want to get out.
Without booster seats, ordinary seat belts not only fail to fully protect children, but sometimes even cause injuries (although safety experts say children are far safer with seat belts than without them). But because many parents are not aware of the importance of booster seats, some stores that offer child seats do not stock booster seats.
The panel--made up of safety advocates and medical, industry and government representatives--also will call on the movie and TV industries to help raise awareness by showing children riding in booster seats. The seats are usually padded and wrapped in fabric, and they have the attraction of making it easier for small children to see out car windows.
The panel will strongly recommend that the auto industry make rear center lap and shoulder belts standard on all vehicles likely to carry children. The center of the rear seat is the safest place for children, provided they are strapped into a child seat or are using a seat belt. The panel also wants the government to improve its safety standards and testing of booster seats.
The recommendations are expected to be taken seriously by the Transportation Department. A similar panel four years ago proposed a new generation of easy-to-install car seats for very young children, an idea that the department recently converted into a requirement.
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Child Safety
A federal panel on auto safety will recommend:
* That states pass laws requiring all children to wear seat belts.
* That parents put children weighing from 40 to 80 pounds in booster seats.
* That the U.S. increase its gasoline tax by half a cent to fund research, education, enforcement and development of a child-sized crash test dummy.
* That the movie and television industries raise awareness by showing children in booster seats.
* That the auto industry make rear center lap and shoulder belts standard in vehicles likely to carry children.
