According to a new report, SUVs are no safer in preventing injuries to children than regular passenger cars, despite public perception that larger cars provide better protection. According to the study’s co-author, Dr. Dennis Dubin of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, “Many people just assume that the extra weight and the size of an SUV makes them safer, but what we found was that the potential benefits were cancelled by the SUVs’ increased likelihood of rolling over.” The Philadelphia study appears in January’s issue of the medical journal Pediatrics.
SUV rollover is a significant danger that can cause serious and fatal injury to children and other vehicle passengers. Parents need to understand that SUVs are no safer for their children. They should also remember the great importance of properly restraining children (based on their age) in a vehicle before making any trip in a vehicle.
In their review of auto accidents involving almost 4,000 children from birth to age 15, the Pennsylvania researchers found that SUV rollover occurred twice as often as passenger vehicle rollover. Children in rollover accidents were found to be three times more likely to suffer injuries than those in non-rollover accidents.
Additionally, the children in SUV rollover accidents who were not properly restrained were 25 time more likely to suffer injury than those properly restrained. Almost fifty percent of those children not restrained in an SUV rollover accident suffered serious injury, compared to three percent that were properly restrained. There is a great risk that a child or other passenger will be struck against dangerous internal structures of the vehicle or be ejected from the automobile during an SUV rollover accident.
This SUV rollover information is noteworthy as the popularity of SUVs as family cars continues to increase. Between 1995 and 2002 the number of SUVs registered in the United States increased by 250 percent. This increase is due, in part, to the perception that SUVs are safer than passenger cars.
The recent study is the product of an ongoing collaboration between the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Partners for Child Passenger Safety. State Farm Insurance Company established the latter in 1997 to develop a database on children involved in auto accidents. With information on over 557,000 children, this database is the most comprehensive source in the world regarding car crashes and children.
Since SUVs are no safer for children than passenger cars, some experts believe the focus of safety lies in proper seating in vehicles. The National Director of Traffic Safety Policy for AAA, Bella Dinh-Zarr, recommends the following measures to reduce the risk of injury to children in the event of a vehicle accident:
Children who weigh less than 20 pounds or have not hit their first birthday should be in the back seat in a backward-facing car seat;
Older children can be placed in a forward-facing seat in the back. They may eventually graduate to a booster seat as they grow. If a child is tall enough to sit on the regular car seat with their back flush with the seatback and knees bent at the front, they may be able to use a booster seat.
Seatbelts should lay against a child’s shoulder not their neck.
Until they are 13-years-old, kids should ride in the back seat, as it is much safer than the front seat.
Due to the significant danger of SUV rollovers, Congress passed a law last year that requires the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to create better standards to reduce this serious risk.
