The incidence and factors associated with child safety seat misuse

Abstract

This report presents the findings for a study on the misuse of child safety) seats. Data were collected in 10 cities across the country at Hardee's Restaurants.) Data collection involved observation of seat use and determination of factors asso ciated with specific types of misuse.Misuse of safety seats was 64.6 percent for the 1,006 safety seats observed. Data was collected on toddler, infant and booster seats.For the 734 toddler seats ob served, 40 percent of the children were not harnessed, 33 percent did not have then seat properly secured with the vehicle belt, and 85 percent of the tether-type seats were not tethered.Of the children not harnessed, almost all of those responsible (95 percent) were aware of this fact.The most common reason given was that the child slips out. or takes off the harness.Nearly 80' percent of those not using the tether strap (when required) stated that they knew that the tether was required and indicated a strong resistance to the installation of a tether anchor. Approximately 75 percent of those) incorrectly belting the seat to the vehicle did not realize the belt routing was in-I correct. While a small number of safety seats were not belted, (7 percent), 75 percent; of those with this misuse were aware of it. In addition, 71 percent of those facing) infant seats forward, knew the seat was supposed to face the rear of the vehicle.The findings indicate that safety seats which are more comfortable for the child, easier to use, and have fewer opportunities of misuse, are more often used correctly. Several countermeasures are proposed to reduce misuse of safety seats.