Most child car seats used incorrectly
By Mike Leidemann
Advertiser Transportation Writer
Nearly three-quarters of all child-restraint systems in American cars are being used improperly, needlessly exposing children to death or injury, according to a national report released yesterday.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
The situation may be even worse in Hawai'i, local child-safety advocates said.
After securing her toddler, Kamalani, into a car seat, Christina Silva yesterday helped her daughter, Leila, 8, buckle up.
"Honestly, the national numbers sound a little low. It may be closer to 90 percent here," said Karen Tessier, coordinator of the Keiki Injury Prevention Coalition's child passenger safety seat program on O'ahu.
While the use of safety seats and other child restraint systems in autos has increased in recent years, 73 percent of people still use them incorrectly, according to the report from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The most common misuses, both nationally and in Hawai'i, are loose straps used to secure the child or to attach a child safety seat to the automobile.
A similar survey of drivers in Hawai'i earlier this year found more than 350 cases (nearly 38 percent of cars surveyed) of 1- to 3-year-old toddlers either unrestrained or improperly restrained in an automobile.
In Hawai'i, the most numerous violations involved toddlers who were unrestrained (21.8 percent); sitting on someone's lap (10.2 percent) or using a seat belt when they should have been in a child safety seat (62.8 percent).
Tips for parents on proper use of child car seats and other safety restraints: • Under Hawai'i law, children under age four must be in a child safety seat and all occupants ages 4 to 17 must use a seat belt. • Never place an infant in a rear-facing seat in the front seat of a vehicle that has a passenger air bag. • Have an expert check to see if your safety seat is installed properly. The Keiki Injury Prevention Coalition provides inspections at more than dozen sites across the state. A list of inspection sites and phone numbers for appointments is available online. • For more information, call the Department of Health Injury Prevention & Control Program at 586-5940. Source: Keiki Injury Prevention Coalition
"A lot of people are surprised when we tell them they are doing things wrong," Tessier said. "Sometimes they suspected something was wrong but didn't know how to fix it and sometimes they didn't know they should be doing something different."
Ride safe
The national survey comes at a time when child safety advocates in Hawai'i have been pressing state legislators to pass a law that would require all children under eight to be secured in a child booster seat.
Current Hawai'i law only requires those under age 4 to be in a child safety seat. That exposes thousands of children who no longer fit into child safety seats and are not yet big enough to be safely protected by adult seat belts to potential injuries or death, safety advocates say. Booster seats help kids sit higher so seat belts go across the shoulder and hips, instead of across the neck and stomach.
Several dozen states have passed laws requiring booster seats for children under 8. Similar bills have died in the Hawai'i Legislature in recent years, often because of technical or expense problems cited by even those who support the intent of the measure.
Advocates counter that the cost of a booster seat is less than $25 and could be offset by a tax credit.
"I was a little surprised that Hawai'i didn't have that requirement when I moved here from California," said Christina Silva, who was picking up her 8-year-old daughter, Leila, at Word of Life Christian Academy in Honolulu. "I had to ask people how old kids have to be before they don't have to be in a seat."
Ella Vogelgesang of Kailua had her 2-year-old son, Kamalu, safely secured in a child seat while she waited to pick up two other children, 9-year-old Bryson and 6-year-old Laakea. Both climbed into a minivan and fastened seat belts, but Vogelgesang said she would use a booster seat for Laakea if the law required it.
An informal survey taken last summer at one of the city's Sunset on the Beach events in Ma'ili found that most parents thought it was important to use a booster seat, but only about 75 percent actually did so when traveling in a car with a child four to eight years old.
Among those who did not use booster seats:
- 57 percent were unaware for the need for them.
- 35 percent felt they were too expensive.
- 17 percent said they have too many children to fit a seat in the car
- 13 percent didn't know where to get a seat.
Researchers in the national study observed and interviewed thousands of drivers and their children at shopping centers in six states. Among the findings:
- Most children (62.3 percent) were in a child-restraint seat, but one in four (25.9 percent) was using a seat belt and 11.8 percent were completely unrestrained.
- Even among those who had a child safety seat, mistakes were high. Often the seats were improperly installed or the children were improperly secured, said Jeffrey Runge, of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
There was one good piece of news for Hawai'i in the survey. Researchers found that when a car driver was wearing a safety belt, a higher proportion of children (91.7 percent) inside the car were likely to be similarly restrained.
The Hawai'i study earlier this year found that the state had one of the highest compliance rates in the country for seat-belt use and that children in those cars tended to be successfully restrained at an even higher rate (93.9 percent).
Reach Mike Leidemann at 525-5460 or mleidemann@honoluluadvertiser.com.
