Seat Belts Keep Adults, Kids Safe [baby]

Seat Belts Keep Adults, Kids Safe

Written by Jeanie Lerche Davis
Reviewed by Gary D. Vogin, MD

May 9, 2002 -- Here's good reason to buckle up in the car: Two new studies looking at seat belt and injury records, show that belts do offer good protection -- whether you're a child or adult.

Both studies appear in this month's British Medical Journal.

In the first study, researchers analyzed records of 470 children and 1,301 adults, all provided by 10 Canadian crash-investigation centers. They looked at use of seat belts by the vehicle occupants, and severity of injury in children and adults.

The findings: overall, 40% of children were unbelted; 22% of children in cars driven by belted adults were themselves unbelted.

Children were nine times more likely to have a fatal or moderately severe injury if they road unbelted in the passenger seat. For those unbelted kids in the back seat, the risk of having a bad or fatal injury was twice as high as for belted children.

"Despite standard seat belts being designed for adults, school age children were at least as well protected as adults," writes lead author Stephen I. Halman, PhD, a researcher in orthopaedic surgery with the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.

In the second study, researchers looked at records of all driver fatalities in passenger vehicle crashes in the U.S. between 1990 and 2000.

"Belted drivers were less likely to die than unbelted drivers," writes lead author Peter Cummings, PhD, a researcher at Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center in Seattle.

Having an air bag was associated with an 8% reduction in death, whether the driver was belted or not. And the risk for women was greater (12%) than it was for men (8%).

However, seat belts provided much greater protection, with seat belt use reducing the risk of death by 65%. Using a seat belt and having an air bag reduced the risk of death by 68%.

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