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- Knowledgebase: The One Minute Pediatrician
- These are short topics that Dr. Dennis wrote for use on the radio. Each topic reads in less than one minute!
- 21. Automobile Safety - Top
- Motor vehicle accidents are the greatest cause of death and injury to infants and children. Almost 6000 deaths each year of children under the age of fifteen years are the result of automobile accidents.
For every death there are 30 injuries. Most of these deaths and injuries could be prevented by the use of child restraining devices.
It is impossible for you to protect your child or baby during an accident by just holding them in your arms. As a matter of fact, if the parent is unbuckled they would be an additional force in crushing the child. If buckled and holding the child in a 30 MPH accident, the parent would have to be able to bench press 300 pounds in order to continue to hold a 20 pound child.
In addition, a child restraint system also keeps the child from being a distraction to the driver and a potential cause of an accident.
Likewise, children should never ride in the bed of a pickup truck for obvious reasons. They are 16 times more likely to be injured or killed there than inside the truck.
- Updated: March 25, 2001
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- Knowledgebase: The One Minute Pediatrician
James L Horwitz, MD
David C. Thomas, MD
Barbara Lindberg, PNP