Connecticut Earns ‘C’ Grade For Efforts To Protect Children in Motor Vehicles

DANBURY — In a study released this week that rated child occupant protection laws across the country, Connecticut’s law fared marginally, receiving a “C” from the National Safe Kids Campaign. In the most comprehensive study to date of the nation’s child restraint laws, Safe Kids found startling gaps in coverage related to age, seating position, and lack of specific child safety seat use.

Safe Kids stringently measured child occupant protection laws in all 50 states and the District of Columbia against a model law that requires correct restraint of all children, in all seating positions, in the care of all drivers.

Among the findings, Fairfield County Safe Kids notes that Connecticut’s child restraint law requires that only children ages three and under and weighing less than 40 pounds be properly restrained in an appropriate child safety seat in all seating positions. Children ages 4-8 can be restrained like adults in a safety belt alone – putting them in a potentially dangerous situation.

Although it may have been intended by the Connecticut Legislature, the law fails to expressly recognize the importance of properly securing both the child and the child safety seat, said Robert J. Cordes of Fairfield County Safe Kids. There are also many areas in which our law gets good marks, such as penalty provisions and no exemptions for certain drivers or vehicles, he said.

“While our state received a passing grade, we find no comfort in a grade of ‘C’ when it comes to protecting our children in motor vehicles,” Mr Cordes said. “This study shows us that Connecticut has a long way to go before it can say our children are truly protected when riding in vehicles. We must do more because children’s lives depend on it.”

Connecticut was one of six states to receive ‘C’s.’

Safe Kids graded the states in seven key categories: (1) restraint use required through age 15; (2) appropriate child restraint requirement by age; (3) proper child safety seat adjustment; (4) public education/public fund; (5) penalty provisions; (6) driver/circumstance exemptions; and (7) other provisions. Safe Kids’ assessments are based on the language of each law, not its implementation or enforcement. Each grade, furthermore, does not correlate the quality of a state’s law with its rate of child passenger deaths or injuries.

Nearly 1,800 children 14 and under die in motor vehicle crashes each year, and more than 276,000 children are injured. Children who are not restrained are far more likely to suffer severe injuries in motor vehicle crashes. Yet as many as 30 percent of children in the United States continue to ride completely unrestrained, and of those who do buckle up, 4 out of 5 children are improperly secured. Only 5 percent of 4-8 year olds ride in booster seats.

As part of the effort to draw attention to the nation’s child occupant protection laws, Safe Kids launched a five-year initiative aimed at closing the gaps and identifying weaknesses in existing laws. Beginning this week, Fairfield County Safe Kids and its sponsoring organization, Danbury Hospital, will work to upgrade the state’s child occupant protection laws by 2006. “Closing the Gaps Across the Map” will educate families on how to properly restrain their children in motor vehicles, and assist states in their law enforcement efforts.

“We want lawmakers to measure their existing law against the model child passenger safety law that we believe provides them with a benchmark,” said Heather Paul, PhD, executive director of the National Safe Kids Campaign.