Superfreakonomics & Car Seats

[Fairy]

I've been meaning to post this since last week. Did I miss a thread on it? I was really shocked to see this making its way thru the media, including on Good Morning America --> http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/Parent...ry?id=8867880#

Basically, they're saying that the statistics for children over two that die in carseats vs. the ones that aren't in carseats (54% fewer deaths in carseats) are comparing against not wearing a seatbelt at all. The real statistics when they did "their own research" of deaths in restrained kids in and out of carseats only differs by one tenth of a percent. I just find this very hard to believe. And even if it is true, I have no idea what data they're using to come up with these numbers and what may or may not be impacting them. Also, they seem to be talking strictly booster seats, but that's not always abundantly clear depeneding on the junket stop they're at.

Their solutions for kids over two are 1) fold-down seat backs built into every car. The photo of one such car with this eature looked great, only there didn't seem to be any belt guidance mechanisms, nor was there any kind of side protection. Or, 2) 5-point harnesses, which finally was something that made sense.

I just found this whole thing, at best, the wrong message to send, and at worst, deady advice.

Thoughts?

[jjordan]

You did miss the previous thread here.

[Fairy]

You did miss the previous thread here.

Thank you!

[Joolsplus2]

Here's another blog on it, too... though it's from last year it offers a good overall view... http://carseatblog.com/?p=88

It seems they have kind of backed off saying it's really not necessary to put kids in seats, but are using the data to prove that something better really needs to be done. I DO wish carmakers would make back seats safe for children without the extra carseat step (be it built in boosters or harnesses or whatever it takes), but it's expensive, the government isn't forcing them to do it, so the best we have is carseats, which may not be miracle workers but ARE a lot better than trying to get a 2-10 year old to sit properly in a seatbelt for every minute of every ride.