According to a report by the New York Times, vehicle accidents remain the top cause of death among children, with a total of 2,885 children dying in motor vehicle accidents nationwide between 2010 and 2014. A majority of the causes were attributed to being unrestrained or misuse of restraint systems such as seat belts and car safety seats. At least one error was made by a parent while using a car safety seat during the discharge of their newborn, according to a study conducted with 291 families with newborns discharged from a health center in Oregon between 2013 and 2014, mostly related to newborn positioning and car safety seat installation. With car accidents still leading the cause of most child-related injuries or deaths, experts have pushed for initiatives on making car accidents less rampant and less fatal.
Recently, many states such as California, New Jersey, Virginia, and Wisconsin to name a few, have passed car seat laws requiring a rear-facing child passenger restraint system for children under two years old for children passenger safety. While most parents would clearly disagree and give out a resounding no to this law, a research carried out by Consumer Reports would make parents think twice about front-facing car seats. According to the research, ‘children up to 23 months old are about 75 percent less likely to die or sustain serious injury in a rear-facing car seat than a forward-facing one.’
Drawing data from sled tests (also known as crash tests using dummies) conducted in Sweden, a country where there are notably less vehicular and road-related accidents, the tests resulted to rear-facing seats protecting more effectively than front-facing ones due to the distribution of impact of the crash on a bigger area, minimizing the neck load of the child during the crash. While it’s currently mandatory in nine states across the US for children to sit rear-facing until two years old, Swedish children use rear-facing car seats up until the age of four. Since Sweden’s rear-facing car seat is constructed differently from those manufactured in the US due to the former’s design for more legroom, the issue of settling down bigger children in rear-facing car seats hasn’t been much of an issue among Swedish parents. The concept of giving more legroom for rear-facing car seats are also found to be safer and more efficient.
Another study conducted by Julie Mansfield, MS, PhD Candidate and a research engineer in the Injury Biomechanics Research Center at Ohio State College Medicine, has found that ‘neck load and the effect of the child’s head hitting the seat varied on the composition of the restraint system used,’ most especially when a Swedish-style tethering and anti-rebound bar was used.
Mansfield also emphasized how a rear-facing car seat can safeguard the child even during a collision where the child is facing the direction of the crash. “The rear-facing seat is able to support the child’s head, neck and spine and keep those really vulnerable body regions well protected.” She also adds that rear-facing car seats are equipped with ‘different features and mechanisms to absorb that crash energy and protect the child.’
While it has been proven that rear-facing car seats do a better job of keeping children safe and less prone to lethal vehicular accidents, it’s more than just the concept of correct use of car safety seats or ensuring they are properly restrained with seatbelts. There are different variables to be considered in the issue of vehicular accidents such as road safety. In New York, an intersection in a Town of Newburgh has been known to sustain more than two dozen accidents over the last three years. The most recent accident took place in December where an 18-year old woman riding a bus was critically injured after an SUV collided with the bus after missing a stop sign in the intersection. Most of these road accidents can be largely due to bad lighting, barely visible signs, and lack of familiarity especially on rural roads.
Another less-known factor in car accident is speeding. 74 percent of vehicles in the US exceed the posted speed limit compared to the Netherlands and the UK, with 22 percent and 45 percent respectively. The higher the speed, the greater the impact of the crash.
Law enforcement has also been in a constant battle against drunk driving, with 214 of 1,233 vehicular-related deaths among children ages 0 to 14 years old involved an alcohol-impaired driver, accounting to 17% in 2016.
While the possibility of getting involved in a vehicular accident is never fully eliminated whenever you are in the road, initiating preventive measures and stricter laws regarding driving, roads, traffic, and even car seats is an effective way to reduce casualties especially children. One straightforward way to do it is to drive cautiously and to make the shift towards a rear-facing car safety seat for your toddler. Get to know more about how the law can protect you and your child by learning more about personal injury lawsuit.
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