Young Drivers Plus No Seat Belts a Bad
Mix
Teens who are passengers in automobiles
that crash are more likely to die than younger children in the
same setting, according to a study in the
Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.
This is especially true if the car is being
driven by a young, inexperienced driver, a new study reveals.
Researchers looked at 45,560 crashes that
involved passengers ages eight to 17. From 2000 to 2005, 9,807
passengers in this age group died in car crashes.
"We were surprised to find that there was a
clear tipping point that occurred between ages 12 and 16, says
lead researcher Dr. Flaura Koplin-Winston, with the Center for
Injury Research and Prevention at Children's Hospital of
Philadelphia. "There was a dramatic rise in deaths to passengers
in cars."
Before age 12, the number of deaths per
year of age was fairly constant, and then suddenly between 12
and 14, it rose dramatically and continued to rise all the way
through the teens, says Dr. Koplin-Winston.
Among these deaths, 54.4 percent of the
teens were riding with a driver under age 20. In addition,
almost two-thirds of the teens that died were not wearing seat
belts.
More than three-quarters of the crashes
happened on roads with speed limits above 45 mph, the
researchers found. Drinking was a factor in 21.2 percent of the
fatal car crashes.
"To me, as a pediatrician, a researcher,
and [a] mother, it really hit home to me that parents need to
start the driving conversation way before they start thinking
about a learner's permit," says Dr. Koplin-Winston.
"It has to start around 12 or 13, because
that's when kids start being driven by other people, and,
unfortunately, sometimes by their peers," she notes.
Dr. Koplin-Winston says parents should talk
to their children about wearing seat belts and be models of
seat-belt wearing themselves.
"We need to identify what is an unsafe
ride," explains Dr. Koplin-Winston. "Riding with someone who is
a young driver, particularly one who is under 16, particularly
in the first year of driving, may be dangerous."
Parents should help their children find
alternative solutions and other rides, notes Dr. Koplin-Winston.
She supports graduated driving laws that
restrict the number and age of passengers that a young driver
can have in the car.
"Those kinds of things can really save
lives," she says.
One expert thinks parents do not pay enough
attention when their children start climbing into the cars of
their friends.
"Parents often worry about health issues in
their children - Is my kid's headache a brain tumor? Of course,
no one wants his/her kid to get these illnesses, but they are
rare and not preventable," says Dr. Karen Sheehan, medical
director of Injury Prevention and Research at Children's
Memorial Hospital in Chicago.
What is common and what is largely
preventable are motor vehicle crashes, Dr. Sheehan says.
"However, as a society, we think of car
crashes as accidents, but really when you look at the data
closely, as they did in this article, there are specific risks
for death that can be identified - and if avoided may prevent
serious injury," she says.
"Parents need to require their kids use
restraints," she emphasizes. "Parents need to be aware of the
dangers of their kids riding with young drivers, especially on
high-speed roads."
Always consult your physician for more
information.