Deadly crashes call attention to improper use of car seats
In Rhode Island, officials say about 85 percent of child safety seats are misused, putting children at risk in car accidents.
01:00 AM EST on Thursday, December 8, 2005
BY TOM MOONEY
Journal Staff Writer
In the past eight days, two young children riding in car seats have died in area car crashes. In at least one of those accidents, the child's car seat was improperly installed, which the police say may have contributed to the 10-month-old girl's death.
The accidents, one in North Kingstown on Nov. 30 and the other on Sunday in Foxboro, draw attention to some startling statistics:
About 73 percent of all child car seats used in America are installed improperly, says the National Safe Kids Campaign, a Washington, D.C.-based group that works to reduce preventable deaths in children.
And in Rhode Island, the percentage of misused car seats is even higher, says James Barden Jr., a special projects manager with the Office of Highway Safety in the Department of Transportation.
"We're finding the misuse figure in this state is about 85 percent or higher," he said. "There are over 200 types of car seats on the market and when you consider the number of different types of vehicles that those seats must be installed in, there is a high chance for error."
Barden says "something that might seem on the surface a minor misuse, such as a harness strap that is not at the armpit level or not tight enough, is actually a very serious misuse if there is a crash. That harness clip is all that is holding the child in the car seat, so something that seems on the surface to be minor could turn out to be a matter of life or death or serious injury."
Lorrie Walker, training manager and technical adviser with the Kids Campaign, says the incompatibilities between vehicles and child restraint seats is large.
"Some cars have up to five different seat-belt systems, which makes it very difficult to know which one to use with the type of restraint you have without reading the directions. And for the most part, Americans don't read directions."
Since 2002, cars and car seat manufacturers have instituted standardized designs to improve compatibility, Walker says. But the problem persists with so many older cars and car seats still in use.
Each day last year in the United States, about 6 children aged 14 or younger died and 673 others were injured in motor vehicle crashes, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. In about half of those deaths, children were in no restraints at all, says Walker.
Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for children between the ages of 3 and 14, the safety administration says. Yet even many good-intentioned parents who are using car seats are carting their children around incorrectly.
Alexandera Diaz, 10 months old, sat facing forward in a car safety seat strapped to the back seat of her parents' Honda Element when the car struck a tree off Devils Foot Road in North Kingstown around 11 p.m. on Nov. 30. She was pronounced dead at Kent Hospital a half-hour later.
The fact that Alexandera was sitting facing forward instead of backward -- as national standards recommend for children 1 year old or less -- may have contributed to her death, said police Capt. Thomas Mulligan. The police are still awaiting a report from the state medical examiner's office before making any final determinations.
Four days later, in the early-morning hours of last Sunday, two sons of a Pawtucket man, one who was 6 and the other who was 2, died following an accident on Route 95 in Foxboro.
A Massachusetts State Police reconstruction team is still investigating the accident, said Sgt. Scott Range. While the 2-year-old was in a car seat, Range said it remains unclear whether the boy was properly restrained. The police are also investigating whether the 6-year-old boy was wearing a seat belt.)
According to statistics supplied by the Rhode Island Office of Highway Safety, two other children under the age of 5 died in car crashes in Rhode Island between 1999 and 2003. In both cases the children were in car restraints, but the statistics do not say whether those restraints were properly used.
During that same period, 8 children between the ages of 10 and 15 were also killed in crashes. In only 13 percent of those instances were seat belts used.
State police Sgt. Karen Pinch is certified through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to teach other police officers and firefighters how to properly fit car seats into vehicles -- and children into their car seats.
Pinch says making sure the car seat fits the vehicle is only half the equation.
"The other half is making sure the child is properly restrained in the seat."
Periodically, Pinch hosts safety clinics around the state, often held at car dealerships or large retail stores such as Cardi's Furniture, where people can have experts, such as her, check their seats.
"Even the smartest people often have it wrong," she says. With so many different kinds of seat belts and seats "there's always going to be one thing someone overlooked. Sometimes it's not that serious and sometimes it could mean life and death in a crash. The gratitude from parents is amazing. I think it hits home what could have happened if they'd been in a crash."
Pinch says most police departments in the state have at least one certified safety technician who can check car seats to make sure they are properly installed. It's usually best to schedule an appointment. If the department doesn't have someone, people can call their local state police barracks.
For more information about car seat safety, the American Academy of Pediatrics offers a guide at its Web site: www.AAP.org as does the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration at: www.NHTSA.gov.