Center of back seat safest for children

By Shannon Pettypiece
Bloomberg News
Published: Tuesday, May 6, 2008 12:19 a.m. MDT
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Almost half of injuries to children under age 3 in car accidents could be eliminated by putting safety seats in the center of a car's back seat, according to a study in the journal Pediatrics.

Parents too often place the child on one of the side seats because it's easier to maneuver them in and out, particularly when another child is in the car, according to a study by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia. The report analyzed data from 4,790 crashes.

General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. provide anchoring systems in the center rear in many of their models to secure safety seats, according to a research report by Consumer Reports posted on its Web site. If a seat, made by companies including Graco Children's Products Inc. and Evenflo Co., can't be installed using such a system, parents can sometimes use seat belts to make it secure, said Jamie Schaefer-Wilson, author of the Consumer Reports' guide to child-proofing and safety, who was not involved in the study.

Some seats "will fit better in the center, where we recommend, and some might not fit a certain car at all," Schaefer-Wilson said in a telephone interview. "You need to make sure the car seat you buy fits both your child and your vehicle. It is a little trickier than it looks."

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Child seats can reduce the risk of a fatal injury by 71 percent for infants and 54 percent for toddlers, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. In 2006, 452 children under 5 years old were killed. Thirty-five percent of those who died in car crashes were unrestrained, the agency said.

"Although placement in any rear seating position provides excellent protection for young children in child restraint systems, those in the center rear have the lowest risk of injury," wrote Michael Kallan, the study's lead author.

Children should ride in a rear-facing car seat until they are at least 1 year old, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. After that, the doctors' group advised that they be placed in a safety seat until the adult seat belt fits correctly, usually when they reach 4 feet 9 inches. All children should ride in the back seat until they are 13, the academy recommends.

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