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"Car seats no better than seat belts." What?!

283 views 4 replies 5 participants last post by  BusyMommy 
#1 ·
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/10/ma...EAK.html?8hpib

Quote:
But no matter what you control for in the FARS data, the results don't change. In recent crashes and old ones, in big vehicles and small, in one-car crashes and multiple-vehicle crashes, there is no evidence that car seats do a better job than seat belts in saving the lives of children older than 2. (In certain kinds of crashes -- rear-enders, for instance -- car seats actually perform worse.)
This article in the NYT Magazine today just stinks. The authors claim that no matter how you analyze the data, fatalities are the same whether children were in car seats or seatbelts. How is that possible? What three year old keeps a regular seat belt on?! And what was the number of children actually in the seatbelts at the times of the crashes? Not given. Okay, part of me is panicking about how unsafe cars are in general, but there are so many holes in this article.

What really gets me is that they only mention fatalities and not injuries, which must surely show a distinction, and which alone would make car seats worth using. The final whammy is when they commission a total of two tests (showing no difference between seats and belts), but omit data for neck and abdominal injury. Such insignificant injuries, really.
It's such a weak piece of reporting and has the potential to do such harm. I can just see people taking a few buzz lines from the story and running with it.

Yes, we need integral belts for children in cars and buses and planes, but this isn't exactly an effective way to goad the industry into providing them!

Grrrrrr. Anybody have any insight that will bring my blood pressure down again?

warmly,
Kam, mamamama! to Meg
 
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#2 ·
Very provocative article... I agree that the fundamental problem is, how do you ensure that a child wears the seatbelt properly? Not only that the child keeps it buckled, but that she doesn't put the shoulder belt behind her back, or lay down on the seat with the belt buckled. I see the author addressed that point, albeit very briefly:

Quote:
It may be that the ultimate benefit of car seats and booster seats is that they force children to sit still in the back seat.
My take on it is, it won't lull me into foregoing safety seats anytime in the near future, because, remembering myself at that age, I would never trust a young child to wear the seatbelt properly; However, it makes me much more comfortable knowing that if, in an emergency situation, my children had to ride without car seats, they wouldn't be as horribly endangered as the standard party line would have us believe.
 
#3 ·
Wow- makes me wonder how much of the recent carseat-use education might be "propoganda" from carseat manufacturers- much like the "anti co-sleepers" are trying to sell cribs. That, or the study is comparing improperly used carseats to properly used seatbelts.

Bottom line: This is only one study, and it didn't include injuries. I'm not about to let ds ride without a carseat anytime in the near future!!
 
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