We are in the midst of CPS Week 2013 culminating on Saturday with Seat Check Saturday. To celebrate, because really, we CPS techs like to party believe it or not đ , Safe Kids Worldwide released the results of a study with some very shocking findings.
We know that vehicle crashes are leading killers of kids; for kids 5 and older, itâs the leading cause of death (see graphs pulled from the WISQARS national database on injury-related data). After reading the study released by Safe Kids Worldwide, we now understand a little bit more why they may be dying in the numbers weâre seeing and itâs truly shocking. We should be ashamed.
  
  
1002 parents and caregivers of children aged 10 and under were surveyed online as to their buckling practices and the results were disappointing. Twenty-four percent of parents (for brevity, Iâm leaving off the word âcaregiver,â but theyâre included as well) have at one time or another not restrained their children. There werenât a lot of differences in gender (no blaming the hubby here!), but 
there was an interesting difference in education level. It turns out that those with the most education, such as a graduate degree, were more likely to say it was acceptable for a child to ride unrestrained than parents with a high school or college-level education. What the? Maybe now the whole pediatrician giving out bad advice thing is starting to make sense.
Along with rise in education, as income rises, so does the apparent acceptability for not restraining children. The excuses range from âIâm not driving farâ to ârewarding the childâ to child âkeeps climbing out.â Perhaps when child passenger safety technicians 
comment on parentsâ carseat practices, we are actually commenting on their parenting abilities because like it or not, ârewarding a childâ and not buckling a child because they âkeep climbing outâ is pretty poor parenting. In the past, Iâve always sworn up and down that Iâm not commenting on a parentâs child-rearing abilities when I tell them that they arenât tightening the harness enough, but damn, if youâre not buckling Billy because he got an A on his spelling test, I do have to question your parenting skills. Billy may not live to see his next spelling test because of that reward. Give him a hug instead, which heâll appreciate a lot better.
For kids under age 12 who were killed in vehicle crashes in 2011, fully 1/3 were unrestrained. These are preventable deaths. Certainly there are crashes so severe that they are unsurvivable, but letâs at least give these kids a fighting chance. As children grow older, they are more likely to be unrestrained. Parents understand that babies need to be restrained properly, but thatâs not carrying over to older children. Perhaps itâs the ease of use of infant seats that can be buckled in the house vs. in the vehicle, perhaps itâs the fast pace of American life where we spend so much time running from one activity to another with a cell phone plastered to our ears (letâs not get started on *that* one, shall we?), perhaps itâs thinking that older children should be able to buckle themselves when they really canât due to dexterity or maturity issuesâwhatever it is, we should take the time to always ALWAYS buckle everyone in the vehicle, even if driving from one store to another in the same parking lot. It only takes a minor crash to cause a giant catastrophe that can change your life forever.
To make sure that your carseat or belt-positioning booster seat is being used properly, please take advantage of Seat Check Saturday this Saturday, September 21. Because itâs a special day, there should be more events planned than usual, so it should be easier to find one in your area. Nationally, itâs said that 80% of carseats are installed or used incorrectly, but I know that in my city, that number is 96%. Thatâs scary! So take advantage of FREE events! Weâre here to help you install and use your carseatsâwe want to help and we want to make sure that everyone in your vehicle is safe. Itâs what we do.
Thank you to Safe Kids Worldwide for permission to use charts and graphics!
Given the limitations of the online survey methodology used here, I’d be cautious about drawing any firm conclusions about the relationship between parents’ income and education and their carseat/booster usage and attitudes.
For example, the report speculates that these higher-income parents may be more likely to view unbuckled children as acceptable because they are more pressed for time, or because they assume that their cars have more built-in safety features.
That may be true, but other studies, based on actual observational data, have found that seatbelt use (for adults – which we know to be correlated with CRS usage) is higher in newer vehicles, and that carseat usage is just as high, if not higher, during weekdays rush hours (when you’d imagine that schedules are tight) than it is on weekends.
Without seeing the full survey and the response options, it’s hard to know whether the results are “real” or are the result of some sort of survey artifact.
The bottom line is that ALL parents need education and reinforcement about proper CRS use.
I have to say that among my well-educated and relatively affluent friends and family, we are outliers in our focus on car seat safety. It is very much the norm to turn kids FF by 12-18 months at the most, to booster at 3-4 years old, etc. It’s a little disheartening but this survey doesn’t surprise me at all.
It doesn’t surprise me. This is also the group who drink alcohol during pregnancy (1 glass of wine won’t hurt) and think casually drug use is okay. Seems fitting. Sad fact rhey are also the moat likely to have small families and no other children after they lose theirs to an accident.
@Motherlydia, “The survey asked parents and caregivers if it was acceptable in certain scenarios for a child to ride in a car without being fully buckled up.” So it was a survey designed to find specifically when parents thought it was OK to go without restraint. I would think that for it to be an accurate survey, it would have to have a “It’s never OK to ride without being restrained” option, but I’ve read the report several times and can’t find that it was an option.
@KQ, that may be very true. We think that educated, upper class parents have the capability and means to self-research, but I guess this shows that either they don’t or don’t know where to start. It goes to show that we need to start with education at the pediatrician level: offices need to have posters and up-to-date information available to parents of all income levels. That’s where most everyone goes with their babes, after all.
I’m a big car seat safety advocate, but even I could not answer “never, ever, ever” to the unrestrained question. It was unintentional. I put her in her seat, got distracted with something else, and never ended up harnessing her! I was mortified when I realized what I had done.
I have to think maybe educated parents aren’t targeted for intervention as much.
I wonder if “never” was a choice for “when is it acceptable” or if people chose they had to choose one of those options?