Title: Seat Belts
Author: Christie Barnes
Date: Thursday, January 15, 2009
Article:

Seatbelts 

This is not a glamorous column. I have four children. And every time we leave the house, no matter how many are in the SUV, for no matter the length of the ride, I make sure each is buckled up.

That’s a climb through three rows of seats attending to Leela, who at eight can buckle herself unless it gets stuck, then Nathan, Zachary and Abby, my triplets who are now just six. If you allow a minute and a half to buckle each one of my children right, that’s seven minutes a car trip, fourteen, roundtrip to the market and back, and with 3 stops along the way—that’s a fair amount of my adult day buckling belts.  It can add 45 minutes or even an hour to a multi-stop shopping trip.  (And watching them trying to do it themselves, in the freezing cold, and then have to step in to help...it is hard not to start the shopping trip as a frustrated wreck).

What drives me to never stray?  In 2005, motor vehicle injures were the leading cause of death amongst children under the age of 14 in the United States, according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC).

What’s one of the most tragic aspects of these deaths? A full fifty-percent of children under fourteen-years-old who were killed in motor vehicle accidents during 2005 were not wearing seatbelts.  The National Highway Traffic Safety Admistration (NHTSA) says more than half of serious injuries to children and deaths could be reduced if children were correctly strapped into the safety seat appropriate to their size.

And yet, unbelievably, 10% of parents feel they never have to buckle up their child. If you’re one of those parents—allow this column to give you inspiration to change, and cherish buckling up your own belt, too. Parents that don’t buckle up, don’t buckle their children. This is a scary thought when you are trusting them to drive your child to Brownie camp.

If you already do buckle your children up, make sure they are correctly fitted to their car seat. The amount of car and booster seat alternatives that are available on the market makes even me loopy, but it’s essential to choose the correct one for your child.

A NHTSA survey found that a full 72 percent of children were not seated and buckled as appropriate to their size, weight and age.

Here are some simple tips from the NHTSA to keep children under 16 safer during the many hours they spend in vehicles. ·        
     Children under 40 pounds should always be driven in car seats.·    
      Those up to 80 pounds belong in booster seats.·        
      No matter the weight of the child, children should remain in booster    seats until they are at least eight-years-old or 4’9” tall.·        
      Sitting in the back seat reduces the likelihood of serious injury to children under 16-years-old by a whopping forty percent.·        
      No matter the length of the journey—always buckle your child up.  

Once your children can drive themselves continue to pay attention. In 2005, high school age boys were more likely than girls to rarely or never wear seat belts. A full 10%. Thus, working with your son so that he’s in the habit of buckling up is essential.

Teen boys may see going seatbeltless as an act of rebellion. To counteract such lures, child safety experts encourage parents to show their teen boys photos of teen accidents so that they understand the implications—there is nothing rebellious in those images.

Much of this column has dealt with tragic data and sometimes, no matter how well a parent cares for a child, accidents happen but the underlying truth is: a full fifty percent of child car accident fatalities could be prevented by seatbelts. Seatbelts are simply the easiest, least expensive way to keep your child alive, they come stock, in every car.

That might not be glamorous but to me it’s worth 10 minutes to an hour of buckling-up time every trip to the store.