Ensuring the safety of school age passengers

doi:10.1136/bmj.324.7346.1108

BMJ 2002;324:1108-1109 ( 11 May )

Editorials

Ensuring the safety of school age passengers

Booster seats are necessary for optimal protection

Papers p 1123

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The article by Halman et al (p 1123) in this issue indicates that children of school age involved in motor vehicle crasheswere less severely injured if they were wearing a seat belt, irrespectiveof the type of restraint or seating position in the motor vehicle.¹The authors report that school age children (4-14 years old) restrainedwith a seat belt were 2-10 times as safe as unbelted childrenand were at least as well protected as adults wearing seat belts.The findings, however, do not answer the question about whetherthe degree of protection afforded children by standard seat beltsis sufficient, according to the authors' discussion of the limitationsof the data. The national safe kids campaign in the United Statesand the child passenger safety community recommend that childrenbe protected in an appropriate child restraint or booster seatrather than in a safety belt at least up . . . [Full text of this article]

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Are seat belt restraints as effective in school age children as in adults? A prospective crash study: Stephen I Halman, Mary Chipman, Patricia C Parkin, and James G Wright
BMJ 2002 324: 1123. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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