The economic benefits of child safety seat misuse reduction programs and design improvements for children in rear seats.

Abstract

This study finds that the break-even point for child safety seat misuse reduction programs and vehicle and seat design improvements is dollars 121 a year per child seat in use, annual misuse reduction program cost is dollars 6, and Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children (LATCH) cost dollars 13 annually per seat in use (in 2004 dollars). To estimate societal injury cost savings we compared tow-away crash outcomes for children ages 0-4, traveling in child seats in the back of passenger vehicles in 1984-1986 vs. 1999-2005. Both injury frequency and severity were compared and entered into the calculation of mean injury costs. To analyze the economic benefits of child safety seat misuse reduction programs and vehicle and seat design improvements for children sitting in rear seats of passenger vehicles, we compared outcomes of tow-away crashes for children ages 0-4 traveling in a child safety seat in two different multi-year time periods: 1984-1986 and 1999-2005. We chose 1984-1986 as a baseline as those years featured large, high-quality samples of crash data during the time period before the ongoing misuse of child seats was recognized as a public policy problem. By the early 1990s, misuse was a policy issue and misuse reduction programs were springing up.