Kids and Air Bags Don't Mix
National Campaign Educates America on Air Bag Safety

Many people don't think twice about buckling a young child into the front seat of a car. Even though the safety belt probably doesn't fit children ages 12 and under quite right, many people think, "It's okay, we're only driving around town." However, since 1993, at least 82 families have learned that where the child sits and how well their safety belts and child safety seats fit can mean the difference between life and death.

Recently, another family lost a young child in a low speed crash when the unbuckled child was thrown forward during pre-crash braking. The child's head was directly over the air bag, in the zone of deployment at the moment of impact. This child along with several other children did not suffocate, as many still mistakenly believe. He died of trauma to the head and neck. Kids and air bags simply don't mix. In most cases where a child died from the force of a deploying air bag, an infant was riding in the front seat either in a rear-facing child safety seat or a child was "out of position" - either unbuckled, or not wearing the shoulder portion of the safety belt.

An air bag can save your life - an estimated 842 people survived serious crashes in 1997 alone thanks to air bags. However, an air bag is not a soft, billowy pillow. To save your life, an air bag comes out of the dashboard at a speed of up to 200 miles per hour, literally faster than the blink of an eye. The safety belt is the primary restraint and must be worn for air bags to work effectively.

"What will it take to get adults to understand that traffic crashes are a serious threat to our children's health, and to our own well-being?" said Janet Dewey, Executive Director of the Air Bag Safety Campaign. "As a nation we focus a significant amount of energy on investigating airline crashes. But few people realize that the number of people who die on our roadways every year is equal to a plane crash every day."

is lending its support to the Campaign, which is a partnership of automotive manufacturers, insurance companies, occupant restraint manufacturers, government agencies, health professionals, and child health and safety organizations. Its mission: to educate the public that air bags save lives, but they work best when everyone is buckled and kids are in back, properly buckled up.

In addition to an aggressive public education campaign now underway, the Campaign is focused on enacting stronger safety belt and child safety seat laws at the state level, and enforcing such laws through high visibility efforts involving law enforcement nationwide. "This problem must be addressed immediately because of the dramatically increasing number of passenger air bags being introduced in the U.S. vehicle fleet," said Dewey. Since 1998, passenger air bags are now mandatory in all new cars sold in the U.S.

While it is important to focus on technology to make air bags safer, especially for children, everyone should ride buckled up and follow these safety points:

• Children should ride buckled up in the back seat. The back seat is and has always been the safest place in a motor vehicle.
  
  
• Little children and babies should ride in the back seat in correct child safety seats for their age and size:
  
  
• Babies at least 1 AND at least 20 pounds should ride in rear-facing child safety seats in the back seat
  
  
• Children weighing 20 to 40 pounds should ride in convertible car seats facing forward in the back seat
  
  
• Children weighing 40 pounds or more should ride in booster seats in the back seat until BOTH the lap AND shoulder belts fit correctly.
  
  
• The child safety seat should be installed correctly, according to the vehicle owner's manual and the child safety seat instructions
  
  
• Bigger kids (age 12 and under) may only sit in the front seat when:
  
  
• They wear both the lap AND shoulder belt
  
  
• The shoulder strap fits correctly over the collarbone (never behind the back)
  
  
• The lap belt fits low on the hips
  
  
• They understand that they should always sit back buckled up in the seat at all times
  
  
• The front passenger seat is pushed as far back as possible.

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