The AAA is stressing the importance of car seat and passenger restraint use as September’s national Baby Safety Month gets underway.
New analysis from the organization, looking at five years of crash data from the US Department of Transportation, reveals a lack of proper child restraint use among children injured or killed in car crashes.
The analysis released by AAA and shows that nearly half (48 percent) of children aged ten and under who were injured and half (51 percent) who were killed in car crashes were either using a vehicle seatbelt prematurely or no restraint instead of a car seat.
From 2017-2021 more than 3.9 million children aged ten and younger were involved in crashes while riding in a vehicle, 527,000 were injured and 2,789 were killed.
This September, AAA and Chicco USA are collaborating to spotlight the importance of effective car seat use, sharing tips and resources for parents to keep their children safe while on the road.
According to the US Department of Transportation, child restraints reduce fatalities by 71 percent for infants younger than one year old and by 54 percent for children one to four years old in passenger cars.
“Traffic safety is central to AAA’s mission and the data shows the importance of understanding what type of child restraint to use and when,” said AAA Spokesperson Aixa Diaz. “We’re pleased to collaborate with Chicco to help deliver critical information about car seat use to parents and other caregivers.”
