Parents want to give their children the best chance to succeed in life. They may treat a newborn with the utmost care when they first come home from the hospital. Unfortunately, the daily grind of providing for a family can often detract from someone’s focus on long-term safety and development.
For example, most parents know that car crashes are a leading cause of injury and fatalities among children of all ages, including infants. However, recognizing that there is a safety concern doesn’t mean you can magically avoid all car travel with them. You simply need to take steps to keep them safer.
If you learn about the leading cause of underage car crash fatalities, you will be in a better position to protect your children whenever you go for a drive.
No restraints or improper restraints are the biggest safety concern
Some parents don’t check with their children to make sure they buckle up before putting the vehicle in motion. Others don’t want to fight with their kindergartner about using a booster seat every single time they drive to the bank or post office. While it may be faster and less stressful for you to just load the kids up in the car, if you don’t put them in the booster seat or other appropriate restraints, they are at a significantly elevated risk of dying or suffering severe injuries if you get into a crash.
A study involving data collected by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration between 2010 and 2014 shows a consistent issue with restraints. Roughly 43% of the children who died in crashes during those years were not wearing property restraints at the time of the crash. It is important for parents to recognize that their own skill at the wheel does nothing to protect their family from the bad decisions made by other drivers.
You can’t control your crash risk, but you can control your child’s safety. Even though you cannot prevent someone else from driving while drunk or texting at the wheel and then causing a crash, you can protect your children from the worst possible outcomes of a crash by insisting on age and size-appropriate restraints even for the shortest of trips in your vehicle. Learning about what puts your children at risk in the event of a motor vehicle collision could help you keep them safer.
