A new study confirms that child safety seats are highly effective in reducing the risk of death among children three years of age or younger involved in motor vehicle collisions.
Child safety seats are "hugely" beneficial during traffic crashes, author Dr. Thomas Rice, of the Traffic Safety Centre at University of California Berkeley School of Public Health, told Reuters Health.
Rice and co-researcher Dr. Craig L. Anderson of the University of California, Irvine, examined data spanning 10 years (1996-2005) from the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration Fatality Analysis Reporting System. The findings appear online in American Journal of Public Health.
They found that unrestrained children age three or younger were three times more likely to die during serious traffic crashes than age-matched children using child safety seats.
Interestingly, Rice noted, child safety seats appear to outperform seat belts in preventing fatalities for children age one year or younger, but not for children two or three years old.
In this analysis, Rice commented, seat belts were "roughly as good at preventing death" as child safety seats among toddlers aged two or three years old.
He emphasised, however, that "because several other studies have found that safety seats are better than seat belts at preventing non-fatal injuries, parents should continue to use safety seats when it is at all possible."
Rice said he is hopeful that his research "will be used to educate parents about the importance of avoiding travelling with completely unrestrained kids at all costs."