Fatal motor vehicle accidents of child passengers from birth through 4 years of age in Washington State.

During the decade beginning Jan 1, 1970 and ending Dec 31, 1979, approximately 39,500 child passengers aged 0 to 4 years were in motor vehicle accidents reported and investigated in the State of Washington: 148 (0.4%) of the children were killed outright or subsequently died. Of the 39,500 children, approximately 6,300, or 16%, were wearing some type of safety restraint and only two, or 1:3,150, were killed. On the other hand, 33,200 were not wearing restraints and 146, or 1:227, were killed. If these ratios are extrapolated, one might conclude that if all the children had been wearing restraints, there would have been 93% fewer deaths. A detailed analysis was performed on 39 fatalities for the years 1977, 1978, and 1979. Fatal accidents involving young children in Washington State usually occurred under ordinary circumstances on dry roads at low speeds during daylight hours and were unrelated to alcohol usage.

Restraint systems for the prevention of injury to children in automobile accidents.

Highway accidents are the leading cause of child deaths in the United States from the ages of 1-14 years-6,122 such deaths occurred in 1973. In most instances deaths and permanent injuries occurred with the child as a passenger in an automobile. One approach toward alleviating this problem is the restraint of children in automobiles to reduce the likelihood of injury in a crash.