Best practices in child passenger safety
Posted 09/13/2012
The UMTRI Biosciences Group is pleased to announce the official launch of its website focusing on child passenger safety research, cpsbestpractice.org. The purpose of the website is to provide rationale for current best practices in child passenger safety by summarizing the research studies supporting those practices.
"There are already many great sites that explain how you should install your car seat and secure your children so they are safe," says UMTRI assistant research scientist Kathleen Klinich, coauthor of the website. "We saw the need for a resource that identifies why we do these things."
The website's text describes the motivation for best practices and includes links to the research papers or abstracts so the reader can easily check the source for topics of greatest interest. The website will be updated as new research relevant to child passenger safety is published.
The website also features videos showing the benefits of restraining children using best practices.
"At a recent Lifesavers conference, child passenger safety technicians expressed a wish for videos that they could pull up on a smart phone to show parents what happens if they don't use a tether, turn their child forward-facing too soon, or don't use a booster," says UMTRI senior research associate Miriam Manary, website coauthor. "These videos are now available from our site."
The website content is based on the January-March 2012 edition of the UMTRI Research Review. The document updates an earlier summary of research supporting best practices that was written by Kathleen Weber in 2000. Since the diagrams included in the first edition were widely used for educational efforts on child passenger safety, the website includes many new diagrams updated with current products and vehicle hardware that can also be downloaded and used for educational purposes.
Child Passenger Safety Week
This year's Child Passenger Safety Week is September 16-22. Many safety groups will be holding seat checks this week. Find one nearby at www.seatcheck.org or call 1-866-SEAT-CHECK.
Photo courtesy of UMTRI Biosciences.