AAA: New Data Reveal Alarming Child Passenger Safety Trends

A new AAA analysis of government crash data reveals a concerning trend in child passenger safety. Despite the continued need for child seats and boosters, use declines after children turn three. As National Child Passenger Safety Week (Sept. 15-21) begins, AAA and the National Safety Council (NSC) highlight the importance of proper car seat use and offer essential tips to keep young passengers safe on the road.

“Young children are constantly growing and changing, and it’s important that parents and caregivers realize that car seat needs also change over time,” says Terri Rae Anthony, safety advisor, AAA East Central. “AAA’s goal is to help everyone understand the best type of child restraint and when to use it.”

The new analysis finds that from 2018 to 2022, more than four million children aged 11 and under were involved in car crashes, resulting in 547,000 injuries and nearly 3,000 fatalities. According to the National Digital Car Seat Check Form (NDCF) database, 74% of car seats inspected in 2023 were improperly installed or used. NDCF finds that there are three common misuses:

• The car seat is installed too loosely
• The tether isn’t used when installing a forward-facing car seat with either the lower anchors or seat belt
• The harness is too loose when securing a child in a car seat

When used correctly, car seats, booster seats, and seat belts protect young passengers. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, child restraints reduce fatalities by 71% for infants younger than one and by 54% for children 1 to 4 years old in passenger cars.  

Other findings from AAA’s analysis include:

• Nearly 4 in 10 (37%) children aged 7-11 killed in a car crash were completely unrestrained. For the youngest children, aged 0-3, 1 in 4 (26%) who were killed were unrestrained.
• According to the NDCF, Child Passenger Safety Technicians inspect about five times the number of rear-facing car seats compared to forward-facing car seats. This indicates that while parents and caregivers seek expert help when children are less than one year old or before birth, they don’t always come back for adjustments as the child ages.
• Children are often transitioned out of the appropriate car seats before it is safe. According to the NDCF, 24.9% of children move to booster seats too soon, and 93.6% transition to a seat belt too soon. Many parents may not know that seat belt fit is more about their child’s height than age.

Parents can find child passenger safety resources by state, including how to get a car seat checked, occupant protection laws, and answers to car seat questions. Click here to learn more. 

Methodology

The statistics on child restraint use in car crashes are based on data compiled by the U.S. Department of Transportation and analyzed by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. Statistics are based on children riding as passengers in cars, minivans, vans, pickup trucks, and SUVs involved in police-reported crashes between 2018 and 2022. For more, visit AAAFoundation.org or find a AAA office near you at AAA.com.    

In partnership with AAA and the National Safety Council, Westat researchers examined data submitted to the National Digital Car Seat Check Form (NDCF), a national database of detailed information on car seat inspections performed by certified Child Passenger Safety Technicians (CPSTs). The final dataset used for analysis represents all 50 states and includes 71,808 car seat inspections performed between January 1, 2023 and December 31, 2023.

About the National Safety Council

The National Safety Council is America’s leading nonprofit safety advocate – and has

been for 110 years. As a mission-based organization, the council works to eliminate the leading causes of preventable death and injury, focusing efforts on the workplace and roadways. The council creates a culture of safety to not only keep people safer at work, but also beyond the workplace so they can live their fullest lives.    

AAA East Central is a not-for-profit association with 69 local offices in Kentucky, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia serving 2.7 million members.  News releases are available at news.eastcentral.aaa.com.  Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.