 Child car-seat warning to parents
Source: BBC News Date: 06/11/09
(UK) Most UK parents are too quick to switch their children to front-facing car seats, a team of doctors has argued.
They say mounting evidence suggests it is safer for children to use a rear-facing seat until the age of four and parents should be advised
accordingly.
In
the UK it is common practice to switch babies to a front-facing seat
when they weigh 9kg (20lb) - around the age of eight months for an
average boy.
The study, in the British Medical Journal, was backed by safety experts.
“
The evidence shows that it is safer for children to travel
rearward-facing for as long as possible, although that does not mean
forward-facing seats are dangerous ”
Duncan Vernon, Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents
Dr
Elizabeth Watson and Dr Michael Monteiro cite evidence from Sweden,
where using a rear-facing seat up to the age of four is common practice.
There,
studies have shown that children who died in accidents restrained in a
forward-facing booster seat could potentially have survived if they had
been travelling in rear-facing seats.
Another
study used the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
database to examine crashes involving 870 children between 1998 and
2003.
It
concluded that rear-facing seats were more effective than
forward-facing seats in protecting children aged 0-23 months for all
crash types.
Recent
crash tests have also reported that rear-facing seats resulted in
significantly lower neck and chest injury measures compared with
forward-facing seats.
Crash forces
Dr
Watson and Dr Monteiro argue that, unlike forward-facing seats,
rear-facing seats keep the head, neck and spine fully aligned, so that
crash forces are distributed over all of these body areas, minimising
the general impact.
They
suspect that many parents and healthcare providers may be unaware that
it is safer to leave children in rear-facing seats for as long as
possible - or that rear-facing seats for toddlers exist.
They
said healthcare professionals should advise that rear-facing seats are
safer than forward-facing seats for children under four years.
They also called on manufacturers and retailers to make rear-facing seats for older children more available.
And
they criticised the current weight-range labelling of European seats,
which they said might imply that forward-facing seats are as safe as
rear-facing seats for children over 9kg.
Duncan Vernon, of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, backed the findings.
He
said: "The evidence shows that it is safer for children to travel
rearward-facing for as long as possible, although that does not mean
forward-facing seats are dangerous."
Mr
Vernon said parents should not be tempted to switch to a forward-facing
seat as soon as their child reached the minimum weight.
He called for greater availability of rear-facing seats in shops, so an expert could provide advice on how to fit it.
Relying
on ordering a seat over the web ran the risk that it would not be
fitted properly, and so put the child at risk, he added.
•
Rear-facing is safest for both adults and children, but especially for
babies, who would face a greater risk of spinal cord injury in a
front-facing carseat during a frontal crash.
•
Rear-facing car seats spread frontal crash forces over the whole area
of a baby's back, head and neck; they also prevent the head from
snapping relative to the body in a frontal crash.
•
Rear-facing carseats may not be quite as effective in a rear end crash,
but severe frontal and frontal offset crashes are far more frequent and
far more severe than severe rear end crashes.
• Rear-facing
carseats are NOT a safety risk just because a baby's legs are bent at
the knees or because they can touch/kick the vehicle seat.
•
Rear-facing as long as possible is the recommendation of the American
Academy of Pediatricians, and can reduce injuries and deaths. Motor
Vehicle Crashes are the #1 overall cause of death for children 14 and
under.
Car-Safety.Org
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