Child safety coalition reminds parents to buckle up their kids

Wendy Olson and the Safe Kids Safe Communities Coalition have encouraged car seat and seat-belt use for more than five years.

Yet too many people still leave themselves and their children vulnerable to tragedy.

"Last year in Montana, 11 children died because they were unrestrained," she said. "Why have they not gotten the message?"

Adults also pay the ultimate price by ignoring the staggering statistics showing seat belts save lives. In 2005, 82 percent of the people who died on Montana roadways failed to buckle up.

As part of National Child Passenger Safety Week, the coalition has highlighted the need to use appropriate child seats and make certain the installations meet safety standards.

As part of her mission in community health promotion at The Summit, Olson provides free child-seat inspections by appointment or at scheduled events.

"It's amazing what people are doing incorrectly," she said.

Since the child safety coalition began in 2000, about 2,500 seats have been inspected. Olson said that more than 80 percent were found not correctly installed.

With new latch systems on safety seats, many people mistakenly use the vehicle's seat belts to attach the seat, thinking they provide better anchors for the seat.

Olson also recalled a father who used a floor jack to install the seat securely, which overstressed the seat-belt system.

"One of the most common things we see is parents aren't using the booster seat," she said.

Booster seats, priced from $20 to more than $200, correctly position children for adult lap and shoulder belts when they outgrow safety seats.

Under Montana law, passengers 6 years of age and younger who weigh 60 pounds or less must sit in appropriate child seats. The law was changed several years ago from requiring children 2 years of age and younger to ride in appropriate restraints.

"Right now, we'd like to see 8 (years) or 80 (pounds)," Olson said.

She and others in the coalition plan to lobby the Legislature for that change as well as making Montana a primary enforcement state, which means police can stop cars for child seat-belt violations.

The coalition recently brought a national expert on child-seat safety to town to bring health professions on board as advocates for better laws and child-seat use.

Joe Colella didn't have to convince emergency-room physicians in the audience that child-seat safety was a health issue.

They see it every day.

Within the last month in Kalispell, two children strapped together by one lap belt were injured in a wreck.

"There's a lot of violent energy in a crash," Colella said. "Children are getting hurt."

Colella, past president of the National Child Passenger Safety Board, spoke at Kalispell Regional Medical Center about the role of medical professionals in preventing injuries.

"Educating parents is a good part of it," Colella said told the physicians, nurses and other medical professionals.

Like Montana's death statistics, the national numbers have worsened despite years of encouraging children and adults to buckle up.

"We're not reducing fatalities," Colella said.

He cited statistics that showed fatalities increased 7.1 percent from 2003 to 2004, the latest year for data from the Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Colella said that every day, six children die in vehicle crashes and 673 sustain injuries.

"A lot of it comes from non-use of restraints," he said.

As children get older, drivers become more lax about proper seat-belt use. Statistics show 2 percent of newborns, 7 percent of children ages 1 to 3 and a whooping 27 percent of children ages 4 to 7 ride unrestrained.

Colella said the No. 1 goal of using restraints is to prevent ejection.

"People who are ejected are four times as likely to die," he said.

People without belts don't just endanger themselves, Olson and Colella said. They also pose threats to others in the vehicle.

Colella played a public-service announcement from Australia that vividly recreated an accident. An unrestrained young man was thrown into his girl friend so hard that she suffered permanent brain damage.

A grandfather in Missoula had an even worse experience.

Olson said the older man, unlike many grandparents, fastened his grandchild into proper restraints. But, like too many older men in Montana, he failed to use his own safety belt.

When the man had an accident, he became a projectile within the car that killed his grandchild.

"It's like a 170-pound bag of cement rolling around," Olson points out.

Colella said properly used child seats and belts spread the energy of the crash to the strongest parts of the body, the pelvis and bony structures of the shoulder and sternum.

"When the vehicle stops after striking something, everything inside keeps moving at the original speed," he said.

To demonstrate spreading energy, he had audience members push one finger under their cheek bones as hard as possible. Then he had them push hard with their hands on the sides of their faces.

Spreading the force greatly reduces the pain and impact.

Colella also said that newer cars that crush on impact provide better protection than indestructible older cars.

"Older cars don't do as good a job of absorbing energy as new cars," he said.

Children who ride facing the rear of the vehicle optimize the spread of energy across their seat, he said.

"If you take anything away with you … it's keep kids rear facing," Colella said.

The expert said that rear-facing restraints prevent fatalities 71 percent of the time. Front-facing restraints are only 58 percent effective.

Children need this protection, Colella said, because they have a disproportionately heavy head and undeveloped body. Rear-facing reduces stretching and elongating of the back and spine.

"You can only stretch the back and spine 1/4 inch before injury or death," he said.

International statistics show a spike in injuries and deaths correlating with the ages at which children can ride facing the front of the vehicles, Colella said.

More avoidable injuries occur when parents move their children out of child seats. Colella said this typically occurs when a child weighs 40 pounds.

"But they are not ready for seat belts," he said.

He recommends keeping children in booster seats until they fit properly in the standard belts. A youngster should be at least 4 feet 9 inches tall and weigh from 80 to 100 pounds.

Seat safety guidelines mandate that:

-Infants ages 1 and younger who weigh 20 pounds or less use a rear-facing seat in the back seat.

-Toddlers older than 1 who weigh more than 20 pounds use a forward-facing car seat in a back seat.

-Children who weigh between 40 and 100 pounds ride in the back seat in a booster seat with the vehicle's lap and shoulder belt properly buckled.

As a final precaution, Colella said to make certain the seat doesn't move more than an inch in any direction and that no more than a finger fits under the fastened harness.

"When you are trying to manage energy, you have to make sure everything is snug," Colella warned.

People who want more information or a safety-seat inspection should call Olson at The Summit at 751-4502.