See Me Safe Raises Awareness
In partnership with Meharry Medical College,
Ford Motor Company Fund and Community Services has created See Me Safe, a child passenger safety seat initiative
aimed to increase community capacity and reduce child injury, disability or death due to traffic accidents. Car crashes are
the number one killer of children in this country. See Me Safe places specific emphasis on active and personalized
involvement by parents and caregivers in the appropriate use of child passenger safety (CPS) restraints.
The complexities and evolving technology of child passenger
safety can be overwhelming and difficult for many parents who often must rely only on written information about the proper
use of safety restraints. See Me Safe addresses this challenge in CPS education by connecting
parents and caregivers to CPS certified technicians and by engaging them in the education process. Parents and caregivers
receive a framed photograph of the child properly restrained which will serve as a personalized reminder of how their child
looks when riding safely in a vehicle.
This program
also acknowledges the important role that health-care providers play in stressing precautionary, life-saving measures through
ongoing child passenger safety education. See Me Safe is inclusive of a CPS reference tool,
Prescription for Safety, developed specifically for health-care providers. The purpose of this informational tool is to expand
the core team of CPS stakeholders. Through the establishment of a supportive network of physicians, nurses, medical interns
and pediatric trauma response teams, parents and caregivers can learn about the proper use of safety restraints for their
children.
See Me Safe has been piloted in Detroit, Dallas and Nashville facilitating
child passenger safety resources to hundreds of parents and caregivers as well as medical professionals.
To assess the benefit of the program, Meharry Medical College
will conduct an evaluation based on pre/post surveys.
Child Passenger Safety Facts
Motor vehicle crashes are
the leading cause of death among children of all races and ages in the United States. (CDC Fatal Injuries Among Children by
Race and Ethnicity—United States 1999-2002.)
In the United States, during 2005, 1,451 children ages 14 years and younger died as
occupants in motor vehicle crashes, and approximately 203,000 were injured. That’s an average of 5 deaths and 640 injuries each day (NHTSA 2006b).
Of the 459 children ages 4 years and younger who were fatally injured in 2002, 40%
were completely unrestrained. (Source: CDC / US Motor Vehicle Injury Facts)
One study found that 72% of nearly 3,500 observed child restraint systems were misused
in a way that could be expected to increase a child’s risk of injury during a crash (NHTSA 2006c).
Child safety seats reduce the risk of death in passenger cars by 71% for infants, and
by 54% for toddlers ages 1 to 4 years (NHTSA 2006b).
The total annual cost of motor vehicle occupant-related
death and injury in the United States is more than $25.5 billion for children age 14 and under. Every dollar
spent on a child safety seat saves $32.
Three Most Common Mistakes Made in Installing a Child Safety Seat
- Not attaching the seat correctly and tightly to the vehicle.
- Not fastening the harness tightly enough.
- Not using the chest clip correctly.
Sources:
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTS).
Traffic Safety Facts 2005: Children.
CDC. US Motor Vehicle Injury Facts.
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTS).
Traffic Safety Facts: Misuse of Child Restraints: Results of a Workshop to Review
Field Data Results.
