Are Booster Seats More Effective than Child Safety Seats or Seat Belts at Reducing Traffic Fatalities among Children?

Abstract

In an effort to increase booster seat use among children, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is encouraging state legislators to promote stricter booster seat laws, yet there is a paucity of information on booster seat efficacy relative to other forms of restraint. Using data from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System for the period 2008-2016, the current study examines the effectiveness of booster seats relative to child safety seats and adult seat belts. For children 2 to 5 years of age, we find some evidence to suggest that booster seats are the least effective form of restraint. For children 6 to 9 years of age, all three forms of restraint appear equally effective.

Shaping the Habits of Teen Drivers

“…3 For reviews of the broader literature, see Shope (2006), Williams (2017) and O'Neill (2020. 4 Economics studies have examined drunk-driving laws (Evans, Neville and Graham, 1991;Ruhm, 1996;Carpenter, 2004;Hansen, 2015); minimum legal drinking ages (Dee and Evans, 2001;Carpenter and Dobkin, 2009;Lovenheim and Slemrod, 2010;Lindo, Siminski and Yerokhin, 2016); seatbelt regulations (Peltzman, 1975;Dee and Evans, 2001;Cohen and Einav, 2003;Carpenter and Stehr, 2008); child safety seats (Levitt, 2008;Jones and Ziebarth, 2016;Anderson and Sandholt, 2019); speed limits (Dee and Sela, 2003;Ashenfelter and Greenstone, above, we show a targeted driving intervention can have sizable impacts. Second, safer driving behavior in our setting persists for two years after treatment, much longer than has been found in the literature.…”

A study of students’ use of restraint systems in school transportation services in primary and secondary schools in northern Iran: an observational study

“…It is necessary to use a booster seat for children and fatality analysis for the period 2008–2016 has reported effective support for children aged 6–9. To increase the use of booster seats, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration encourages state legislators to enforce booster seat laws [ 31 ]. It seems that due to not using a booster seat in the present study, there is a need to educate and introduce the booster seat to the parents of students and encourage them to use it.…”