Child Passenger Safety

Keeping children safe while riding in cars continues to be a primary focus of DRIVE SMART COLORADO. Here you will find some strategies that may work in your community.

To find a Certified Child Passenger Safety Technician in your area, check http://cert.safekids.org, click on ‘Find a Tech’, and then enter your city and state to find currently certified techs and instructors who are available for public contact.

A closer look at children ages 0 -14

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, of the 23,714 passenger vehicle occupants killed in 2016 in fatal crashes, 826 (3%) were children, and more than 128,000 were injured. Based on known restraint use, of these 826 child occupant fatalities, 289 (38%) were unrestrained. One CDC study found that, in one year, more than 618,000 children ages 0-12 rode in vehicles without the use of a child safety seat or booster seat or a seat belt at least some of the time. Of the children ages 12 years and younger who died in a crash in 2016 (for which restraint use was known), 35% were not buckled up.
Many of these deaths and injuries can be prevented. Placing young children in age and size appropriate car seats and booster seats reduces serious injury and fatality by more than half.

From 2013 – 2017 in Colorado, 39 children aged birth through 15 died in a traffic crash. Most of these deaths could have been prevented with proper use of a child restraint (car seat or booster seat) system.

Please check the child passenger safety laws in your state https://www.ghsa.org/state-laws/issues/Child-Passenger-Safety. Remember that while laws vary between states, the laws of physics cross all boarders.

With thousands of NHTSA certified Child Passenger Safety Seat Technicians trained throughout the United States, and hundreds in Colorado, every parent , grandparent and caregiver should be able to get their car seats checked to make sure they are properly installed and that the child is in the proper restraint system, with the proper fit. Most of these checkups are conducted for free, by appointment.