Traffic Tech #178: Survey Finds that Children are Being Moved Out of Car Seats and into Adult Seat Belts Too Soon

Number 178                                                             May 1998

SURVEY FINDS THAT CHILDREN ARE BEING MOVED OUT OF CAR SEATS AND INTO ADULT SEAT BELTS TOO SOON

Nearly half of drivers age 16 and older in the United States have, in the past year, driven a vehicle with a child under age 6 as a passenger. For about a third of these, or 17 percent of all drivers, the young child lives in their household.

A substantially larger percentage, 29 percent, have driven young children who do not live with them. Nearly four in ten of these were grandparents, more than one-third were other relatives, and one in five were not related to the child.

Between November 1996 and January 1997, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) conducted a national telephone survey of the public who were age 16 and older to ask about child safety seat issues and other issues. NHTSA previously distributed the Methodology, Air Bag Report, Seat Belt Report, and Crash Injury and Emergency Medical Services Report. See Traffic Tech numbers 165, 166 and 168.

Premature Use of Seat Belts by Children

While NHTSA recommends that the safety restraint system should be the one appropriate for a child's size, the survey suggests that children are being moved from car seats to seat belts prematurely.

The survey questioned a subgroup of drivers about the restraints they use for young children under age 6 riding with them as passengers. While almost all infants (96 percent) under 20 pounds were said to be in their car seats all of the time, this drops to 86 percent for those 20-29 pounds and then to 68 percent for those 30-39 pounds. Only 29 percent of children weighing 40 pounds or more were in car seats all the time. The charts show this by weight and by age of the child.

Children who were not placed in car seats all the time usually never used car seats. Almost all these children reportedly wore seat belts all the time (92 percent). Seat belts, however, generally will not fit a child appropriately until the child is larger.

Most Know It's Safest In the Back Seat
Among those who used car seats, almost all (97 percent) knew that the safest place for a car seat is in the back seat. Only 85 percent, however, said they put the car seat in the back. These are improvements over NHTSA survey findings in 1994, when 91 percent considered the back seat to be the safest location, but only 78 percent placed the car seat in the back.

Drivers in 1996 were more likely than drivers in 1994 (65 vs 46 percent) to place their children in the back seat when they were not in car seats. More good news is that fewer drivers in 1996 (14 percent) than in 1994 (22 percent) said that children rode in a passenger's lap when they weren't in a car seat.

Drivers who used car seats for young children generally considered them easy to use. About nine out of ten thought it was either very easy (59 percent) or somewhat easy (31 percent) to attach the seat to the vehicle. Almost everyone agreed that it was very easy (72 percent) or somewhat easy (25 percent) to properly buckle the child into the seat.

Reasons for Not Putting a Child in a Car Seat
If a child rode in a car seat, but not all the time, the most frequent reasons given were that the child would be in the vehicle only a short time (39 percent) and that the child doesn't like the car seat (39 percent). If the child under age six never used a car seat, the adult said the child was considered too big (86 percent) and already was using a seat belt (96 percent).

Most Support Enforcement of Car Seat Laws
Most adults support strict enforcement of car seat laws, but this declined from 74 percent in 1994 to 69 percent in 1996. While support for strict enforcement remained about the same for those with children under age 6 within the household (78 percent to 77 percent), support declined from 73 percent in 1994 to 68 percent in 1996 among those without children in this age range. Still, more than nine out of ten (94 percent) believe that children who outgrow car seats should be required by law to wear seat belts when riding in a motor vehicle. Few believe there should be an upper age limit where the requirement no longer applies. Rather, the vast majority believe that the requirement should apply to all children.

How To Order
Limited copies of 1996 Motor Vehicle Occupant Safety Survey -- Volume V Child's Car Seat Report (57 pages), prepared by Schulman, Ronca, & Bucuvalas, Inc. are available by writing to the Office of Research and Traffic Records, NHTSA, NTS-31, 400 Seventh Street, S.W., Washington, DC 20590, or send a fax to (202) 366-7096. Alan Block was the contract manager of this project, email: ablock@nhtsa.dot.gov

U.S. Department
of Transportation
National Highway
Traffic Safety
Administration 400 Seventh Street, S.W. NTS-31
Washington, DC 20590
Traffic Tech is a publication to disseminate information about traffic safety programs, including evaluations, innovative programs, and new publications. Feel free to copy it as you wish. If you would like to receive a copy contact:
Linda Cosgrove, Ph.D., Editor, Evaluation Staff
Traffic Safety Programs
(202) 366-2759, fax (202) 366-7096
E-MAIL: lcosgrove@nhtsa.dot.gov