Give Your Kids a Safety Boost

Children who weigh less than 80 pounds and buckle up with adult seatbelts are almost four times more likey to be seriously injured in vehicle crashes than kids riding in booster seats, according to a 2000 study reported in the Journal of Pediatrics. The study found that 83 percent of 4- to 8-year olds had graduated to using adult seatbelts too soon. A follow-up study by the same group released in 2003 and based on real-world data showed booster seats virtually eliminated injury to the abdomen and spine in auto crashes.

Seatbelt Syndrome
"Besides providing the first evidence of an overall benefit, this study demonstrated the virtual elimination of 'seatbelt syndrome' for children who used the booster seat," says Dr. Dennis R. Durbin, lead author of the study appearing in the June 4, 2003 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association and an attending physician in the emergency department at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. "We did not expect to see that dramatic a result."


Partners for Child Passenger Safety (PCPS) conducted in-depth analysis on 4,243 children ages 4 through 7 who were in crashes reported to State Farm Insurance from 1998 through 2002. In 2000, this same research group had demonstrated the effectiveness of child restraints, including booster seats, compared to seat belts among 2- to 5-year-old children. At the time of that study, not enough older children were in restraints to provide reliable data.

Safety Facts
The odds of injury were 59 percent lower for children in the 4-to-7-year age bracket in belt-positioning boosters than in seatbelts. Children riding in booster seats had no injuries to the abdomen, neck, spine, back or lower extremities, while children in seatbelts alone had injuries in all body regions. The effectiveness of the booster seats was the same regardless of whether the children used both the lap and shoulder portion of the seat belt or just the lap portion. Data from the study showed that only 16 percent of 4-year-olds, 13 percent of 5-year-olds, and 4 percent of 6- and 7-year-olds were using booster seats.


Children who don't fit the seatbelt properly can hit their heads on their knees, jerk forward and damage their spines, or slide out of the belt altogether during a crash. Children who are put in seatbelts too young are not physically suited to the seatbelts. Their legs are too short, their thighs are too short and they scoot forward on the seat. The shoulder belt fits over their face; the lap portion comes up over their belly. For those reasons, the seatbelt becomes the child's enemy in a crash causing severe abdominal and spinal injury.