Children’s Hospitals Work to
Keep Kids Safe in Cars

The National Transportation Safety Board reports that highway deaths are the number one killer of children in our nation.

Between 1990 and 1999, 90,000 children under age 20 died in car crashes. This means that each week, 33 children under the age of 10 and 110 teens ages 16 to 20 died from crashes. During the same time, more than 8 million children were injured.

The National Association of Children’s Hospitals and Related Institutions (NACHRI) finds and shares success stories of programs at hospitals across the nation that help teach families about keeping children safe in cars.

Seattle Children’s conducts car safety checks April through September, sells car and booster seats through the Online Store at www.seattlechildrens.org, and supports a campaign to increase booster seat use.

Since children’s hospitals treat most of the children injured in car crashes, NACHRI member hospitals support and promote laws that will prevent injuries and deaths, and keep children safe. Such laws include requiring school-age children to be in a proper restraint system for their age and size. Others propose to restrict driving privileges of teens when they first get a license.