WWYD? Decrease children's traffic fatalities by half - how would YOU do it?

[Adventuredad]

All you car seat gurus, what would you do if given the task to decrease traffic deaths by half in U.S. for children who ride in cars? Time frame would be 3-5 years.

You will have access to lots of money and you can build a company from scratch that will accomplish the task. How much money is needed? $10 Million? $50 Million? $ 1 Billion? How big of a company?

What would the rough strategy be? Personally I would invest lots in education, lower allowed alcohol levels drastically, increase enforcement, target doctors, schools (parents), TV commercials, hospitals, radio commercials, etc. It would have to be a large operation. Would it be necessary to give away car seats to many people who are struggling with money?

This is a hypothetical situation but I'm curious if we could do it with sufficient resources (read money). Lets say we divert $500 million from some other junk, is it feasible to see some real results and save many lives?

 

[HEVY]

Wow, it might be like a big brother type of situation.
I would come up with one curriculum and make it mandatory that all school staff, medical staff and hospital staff take the classes. And would follow up with them on some type of spot checks to make sure they are following through. I would up the traffic checks to at least once a month and higher in places that showed high or repeated misuse. And I would raise the tickets to at least a minimum of 300 and each one after 100 more. If you reach 500 then you lose your license, have to take the CPS class and do a minimum of 100 hours community service. OK I am late for an appointment and this is off the top of my head, but got to go.

 

[vonfirmath]

Make it illegal to drive anywhere with a child. That should do it.
(Sometimes it really isn't practical to do what we might wish to do)

 

[skaterbabs]

I'd push ERF and development of higher-weight seats. In side impact crashes (the most deadly) properly restrained infants in RF seats have a 99.5% survival rate. (Something like .4% of side-impact deaths are properly restrained infants, iirc. The actual numbers are posted around here somewhere - probably on one of the Consumer Reports screw-up threads.)

 

[crunchierthanthou]

outlaw cell phones while driving. That should decrease all crashes by about half.

 

[Adventuredad]

Make it illegal to drive anywhere with a child. That should do it.
(Sometimes it really isn't practical to do what we might wish to do)

You make it sound like this is some impossible and unreachable goal. Like driving to Mars and build a golf course. Traffic deaths in U.S. are at appallingly high levels, cutting them in half would make stats look alright but nothing out of the ordinary.

If seats belts were used more often, DUI was decreased somewhat, and car seats used more the rate would be way down. Point is traffic deaths among kids are nowhere near a priority despite being number one cause of death. Money can't be a problem, a few billions can easily be diverted from other areas.

 

[LISmama810]

Hmmm...how much would mind control cost?

 

[An Aurora]

I'd push ERF and development of higher-weight seats. In side impact crashes (the most deadly) properly restrained infants in RF seats have a 99.5% survival rate. (Something like .4% of side-impact deaths are properly restrained infants, iirc. The actual numbers are posted around here somewhere - probably on one of the Consumer Reports screw-up threads.)

If anyone has a link I would love one, as I just lost all my bookmarks recently :thumbsdown:

I think if we made seat checks mandatory and increased CPS education/awareness it would help alot. The seats we have now on the market are safe, but not when used improperly. If we cut down on the misuse, it would really cut down the deaths. If we made unrestrained or improperly restrained children a bigger offense and had teachers/social workers/CPSTs/nurses etc mandated reporters, that might help.

Of course we can give companies huge incentives to research higher RF weight limit seats, and share their crash test data, but while they are working on developing that we can work on the above.

 

[Defrost]

I would require that all vehicles have built-in infant/todller and child seats in every rear seating position. I would design these personally, of course, and make an appropriate profit for my work.

Vehicles would also have the option of allowing parents to purchase after-market infant carriers that could also be installed in the vehicle, as well as special-needs car seats for children unable to use the built-ins, but it would no longer be required that parents purchase child seats separately from their vehicles and install them.

I'd also make sure that all car dealerships had at least one full-time employee who would educate parents in the proper use of the built-in child seats.

Child passenger safety would be made a high priority in law enforcement.

Basically I'd make properly buckling your kids just as easy as buckling yourself.

 

[murphydog77]

:thumbsup: Call me a Pollyanna (and I think most people who really know me would call me a pessimist), but I think it's completely doable. All it would take is a lot of education. We'd need to launch a big PSA campaign, nationally sponsored, pediatricians would have to be trained, *all* technicians would have to be properly trained , and hospitals would have to have a tech on staff to train parents as they get ready to leave with their newborns.

We all know that techs don't cost much money--training is virtually free in many locations and many of us do what we do for free, though really we shouldn't. What *is* expensive is media. It's horrendously expensive. Yes, the media is supposed to give up airtime for PSAs, but we'd be competing with other causes to get our message across. To get prime airtime, we'd have to pay $$$.

We can cut injuries and deaths in half just with education alone. The seats we have now are safe enough to do the job.

Our drowning prevention committee in our SK coalition has reduced the drowning rate here by 50% through their education activities, including some pretty powerful PSAs. The education works.

 

[An Aurora]

pediatricians would have to be trained, *all* technicians would have to be properly trained , and hospitals would have to have a tech on staff to train parents as they get ready to leave with their newborns..

Gah, so true. Doctors and "bad" techs are the bane of my existence.

 

[minismom]

I'm confused here. What tools do we have in this hypothetical? I get the unlimited money part but do we actually have power to do laws too? cause a lot of money wont necessarily enable you to get them to pass laws.

I think I'd start with education, lots of tv adds, focusing on ERF primarily but also on HWH, no so much for 5-6 yo, but focusing first on getting those 3yo back in harnessed seats. Grants for trainning of techs and child care provided while moms take the class so everyone who wants to get certified can do it. I'd wanna get baby stores to allow us to place a tech in each store and train their emplyees. I'd spread the word about which features to look for in carseats so people stop buying those stupid seats that are outgrown super fast. Buy all 3 in 1s and OHT out of every store shelf and burn them. Don't hate me about the 3 in 1s, I just don't want one more person using that booby-trapped headrest in harness mode. And I'd bribe (read provide incentives) for companies like Britax and others to bring their ERF seats to the US market.

Now if I had the power to pass any laws, don't get me started!!!

 

[Defrost]

I'm confused here. What tools do we have in this hypothetical? I get the unlimited money part but do we actually have power to do laws too? cause a lot of money wont necessarily enable you to get them to pass laws.

You use the money to hire people to help get your laws passed.

 

[BookMama]

Train more techs, train doctors, child care workers, etc. as others have mentioned. PAY techs, instead of having only a (mostly) volunteer corps. :thumbsup: If I got paid for being a tech, I'd do it full-time rather than doing just one seat check event a month.

Media/educational campaigns.

Have techs on staff at ALL doctors offices. When a child goes to the doctor, they MUST get their seat checked.

I agree with Heather that the seats we have available are safe - we need to get people to USE them properly. Proper installation, RF to the limits, harnessing to the limits, boostering until the child outgrows the seat. Etc.

I know that whenever I read the accident studies that are posted here periodically, almost every one involves gross misuse of some sort. If we could just eliminate the misuse, the death rate would drop for sure.

 

[skaterbabs]

If anyone has a link I would love one, as I just lost all my bookmarks recently :thumbsdown:

Here are two from the CR fiasco:
http://www.car-seat.org/showpost.php?p=69844&postcount=72

...There were approximately 4.1 million babies born in 2004. FARS recorded 120 crash deaths for children under 1 in 2004. They estimate that 80 of these were using a child restraint. NOPUS reports that 98 percent of children under 1 used a child restraint. So 40 of the estimated 82000 infants not in child seats died which is 48 deaths per 100000 children. 80 of the 4.0 million babies died which is 2 deaths per 100000 children. (The overall rate for passengers of all ages including motorcyclists is 14 to 15 per 100000.)
...
Infants are included in the favored group of passengers 9 and under that have radically lower fatality rates in vehicle crashes than all other ages. (3.1 per 100000 compared to 14.5 per 100000 overall) They are also included among the favored group of passengers under 5 that have the lowest injury rates of all. (300 per 100000 compared to 950 per 100000 overall) ....

http://www.car-seat.org/showpost.php?p=74043&postcount=21

What we .... see from REAL LIFE crashes is that infants are VERY well protected. Infant deaths in side-impact crashes (the most deadly) account for only about .07% of ALL motor vehicle deaths. Since nearly 9 out of ten children are improperly restrained, the fact that infant deaths in side impacts are counted by TENS rather than THOUSANDS means that a properly-restrained infant in an infant seat has a VERY, VERY low chance of dying in type of crash most likely to result in death. Adults and children in seatbelts are most at risk.

 

[abacus2]

I think that properly educating pediatricians and hospitals would make a huge difference. The second thing would be to have car seat checks like they do sobriety checks and everyone with an improper seat or improperly restrained child would be required to attend a car seat class and check. Requiring stores and manufacturers to properly label the car seat choices so that no parent can walk into a store and think that a booster is ok for a two year old or that their 5 year old is too big to need a seat. Maybe boosters should be moved from the baby/toddler section to the kids section. More affordable HW seats need to be available. Convertible and combination seats should have a minimum harness height that ensures they fit by height for a reasonable amount of time.

 

[Unregistered1]

Off the top of my head... CPST training for anyone who works with kids or seats EVER, parents included. Child endangering charge for anyone caught without a child properly restrained, and this should be a primary offense. Police will be able to tell because, well, they'll all be CPSTs. Parents wont want the charge or the penalty so maybe they'll think twice.

If that didn't cut it enough, we'd have car seat check points like they do DUI check points, I believe they do something like this in Canada.

 

[Adventuredad]

:thumbsup: Call me a Pollyanna (and I think most people who really know me would call me a pessimist), but I think it's completely doable. All it would take is a lot of education. We'd need to launch a big PSA campaign, nationally sponsored, pediatricians would have to be trained, *all* technicians would have to be properly trained , and hospitals would have to have a tech on staff to train parents as they get ready to leave with their newborns.

We all know that techs don't cost much money--training is virtually free in many locations and many of us do what we do for free, though really we shouldn't. What *is* expensive is media. It's horrendously expensive. Yes, the media is supposed to give up airtime for PSAs, but we'd be competing with other causes to get our message across. To get prime airtime, we'd have to pay $$$.

We can cut injuries and deaths in half just with education alone. The seats we have now are safe enough to do the job.

Our drowning prevention committee in our SK coalition has reduced the drowning rate here by 50% through their education activities, including some pretty powerful PSAs. The education works.

I like that kind of thinking. I'm sure this "project" is doable, quite easily actually. It just has to be a priority.

 

[Adventuredad]

Love the suggestions!

The seats we have now on the market are safe, but not when used improperly.

Nails it I think. We have good seats which are not too expensive but many are not using them.

Our drowning prevention committee in our SK coalition has reduced the drowning rate here by 50% through their education activities, including some pretty powerful PSAs. The education works.

If we can do this, can't we decrease traffic deaths as well?:thumbsup:

Of course we can give companies huge incentives to research higher RF weight limit seats, and share their crash test data, but while they are working on developing that we can work on the above.

The seats exist, at least op to 55 lbs. But isn't the problem more that people are not using any seat instead of using the wrong seat? Seems like many deaths involved unrestrained kids.

Many seem to be suggesting education of some sort which I totally agree with. If I look at the countries that have low or normal fatality rate among kids, the approach seem simple and almost nonexistent. There are no technicians, trained doctors, outrageous fines, or seat checks. Keeping kids safe is up to the parents. But there seems to be more involvement from government to keep the issue "alive". No huge and expensive campaigns but ongoing discussion and reminders of the importance of keeping kids restrained. Do we need more government involvement?

It's not rocket science to have older kids use a seatbelt and have younger kids use a car seat (of any kind). Still, and correct me if I'm wrong, about 50 % of fatalities are due to unrestrained kids.

It seems to be all, or at least mostly, up to parents. How do we get through to parents and make a car seat or seatbelt a default kind of thinking?

Or is saving kids in traffic maybe not a cost efficient project? Perhaps we should spend the money on medicine, vaccines, and prenatal care for poor people who are struggling?

 

[April]

I'd love to see what kind of traffic related child mortality stats Sweden has, if anyone knows. Because it seems to me like they are in a whole different world of CPS than we are.

I do agree that education is key. I mean I spend a good chunk of my time policing CL for expired seats and 95% of those parents have no idea seats even expire. When we know better, we do better, right? I mean last week when I chased down that car with the unrestrained toddler, that cop kept saying that we need more people to call in when they see stuff like that. So more checks, more education, and I think in terms of us Canadians, having more seat selection would be great. I mean at MY local BRU and Walmart there are no Radians, no Britax, no Nauti's and we JUST got the EFTA and TrueFit in stores. You have to go to a specialty store to get all the hwh seats, and most people just don't do it. So when there's so many good options missing, its hard. Our laws are getting better, but the education needs to increase dramatically imo.

**ETA** I went hunting for the Swedish data and found a couple of interesting tidbits: "Fewer than one in twenty fatalities in road traffic accidents is a child, although children make up almost one in five of the population. They are at less than a quarter of the risk of the average member of the population across the EU-18 as a whole." I wonder how that compares to US data????

And then this: "Both for boys and girls, more are killed in the 10-14 age group than in either the under five or the 5-9 age groups." Makes me wonder if that is car seat related. They seem to have very few traffic related deaths in children aged 0-9.

Both of the above found here: http://ec.europa.eu/transport/roadsafety/road_safety_observatory/care_reports_en.htm