Emergency Nurses Urge Proper Use Of Safety Belts and Child Seats As Americans Hit The Road

CHICAGO, May 24 -- You've packed your road maps, emergency numbers and cell phone. Before you pull out of the driveway for that leisurely summer vacation, however, don't forget the single most important precaution you can take to keep your family safe on the road: buckle up.

To help spread the important message of seat belt safety, the Emergency Nurses Association has partnered with Liberty Mutual to launch a public education campaign.

"With summer on the horizon, we're urging parents to insist that everyone in the car - from the youngest passenger to the oldest - be properly buckled up," says Janet Lassman, RN, Director of Program Development and Training for Emergency Nurses CARE (EN CARE), the Injury Prevention Institute of the Emergency Nurses Association.

"Safety belt use can mean the difference between walking away from a car crash with a few cuts or scrapes and serious injury or even death," says Lassman. In fact, car safety belt use reduces the risk of fatal injury by 45 percent, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), and cuts the risk of moderate to critical injury in half. NHTSA statistics show that 60 percent of those killed in motor vehicle crashes in 2001 were not belted.

Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for children ages 4 to 14 as well as for teenagers, according to the NHTSA. "That's why it's so critical to ensure that every child buckle up for every car ride. That includes child safety seats for infants and toddlers, booster seats for kids ages 4 to 8, and shoulder and lap safety belts for older kids and adults. All children ages 12 and under should ride in the back seat," says Lassman.

EN CARE and Liberty Mutual offer these guidelines for choosing age- and weight-appropriate child safety seats:

-- Infants (birth to 1 year and less than 20 lbs) should use an infant only or rear-facing convertible seat. Harness straps should be at or below shoulder level. (Children in rear-facing child seats should never be in the front seat of a vehicle with passenger air bags.)

-- Toddlers (more than 1 year old and between 20 to 40 pounds) should use a forward-facing or convertible seat. Harness straps should be at or above shoulders.

-- Young children (ages 4 to 8, unless 4'9") should use a belt positioning booster seat. The booster seat must be used with both the lap and shoulder belt.

Lassman notes that parents also must insist their teenagers buckle-up. Teenagers, she says, are among the least likely to wear safety belts. In fact, two-thirds of the teenage drivers killed or seriously injured in crashes in 2000 were unbelted.

Today, about 70 percent of Americans regularly use safety belts, and ENA supports a NHTSA goal to increase that figure to 90 percent by 2005. ENA also supports Operation ABC (America Buckles up Children) Mobilization, an effort to intensify enforcement of safety belt and child restraint laws that coincides with Buckle Up America Week.

"As emergency department nurses, every day we see the devastating injuries -- and fatalities -- that could have been prevented by simply wearing a safety belt," Lassman says. "We want to help spread the message that safety belts truly do save lives."