By Rita Colorito on January 31, 2012 in
Parents might breathe a sigh of relief when their children no longer need a bulky child car seat or booster, but they shouldn't exhale just yet. Many young children who use adult seat belts are improperly secured because of ill fit, finds a study by the University of Michigan.
Using a 2007 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration survey of nearly 900 drivers, researchers found that of 37 percent of the drivers who said that their 4- to 9-year-old passengers use seat belts, 78 percent admitted that on most trips, their child passengers ride with an improperly fitting seat belt, according to the report published in the November issue of the journal Academic Pediatrics.
When to make the transition
"Many parents may not even be aware of proper seat belt positioning and may not understand the serious and potentially permanent injuries that can result from improper belt fit," said Michelle Macy, M.D., M.S., a clinical lecturer of emergency medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School in a prepared statement.
State child passenger safety laws govern when children can safely transition from a their car seat to safety belts. While some state guidelines meet the most stringent criteria, others fall short, literally, of the height requirement needed for children to be truly safe using only adult seat belts.
Macy said height matters most when deciding when it's safe to transition from a booster seat to a seat belt. Children should be at least 57 inches in height before they stop using a booster seat. "Fifty-seven inches is the average height of an 11 year old," said Macy, the study's lead author. "Those parents relying on a seat belt to protect children under nine years-old are jumping the gun by two or more years."
Safe Kids USA goes one step further and recommends parents wait until their children are 57 inches and weigh between 80 and 100 pounds to transition them to using only adult safety belts. And, remember, children ages 12 and younger should always ride in the back seat, buckled up.
Getting the best fit
Once children reach the safest size requirements, seat belt fit still matters. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety offers photos of what a proper fitting belt should look like, and recommends lap belts lie flat across a child's upper thighs, not across the soft abdomen, and shoulder belts should cross snugly over the middle of a child's shoulder.
To make sure safety belts fit your child properly, parents can also perform the Safety Belt Fit Test by Safe Kids USA.
Beware of fidgeting hands: Some children might find shoulder belts uncomfortable and move the belt behind their back or underneath their arm. This position negates the safety benefits.
For more child passenger safety information, check out the Centers for Disease Control and the American Academy of Pediatrics.