Older Kids Riding as Passengers Dying Far Too Often

Most parents know that a child safety seat in the back seat is the only safe place for babies and toddlers when they get in the car. But as kids grow, the rules about where and how they should ride become a little fuzzier — and sometimes more lax, with tragic results, as older kids venture out with drivers other than Mom or Dad.

As part of an ongoing collaboration between The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and State Farm Insurance Companies, researchers looked at information about more than 45,000 crashes from 2000 to 2005 involving 8- to 17-year-old passengers. What they found: 9,807 of kids in that age range were killed, with 12- to 16-year-old passengers more likely to die in crashes than younger kids.

Of the children who died, more than half were riding in a car with a driver younger than 20, almost two-thirds were unrestrained, and more than 20% of the fatalities involved alcohol. Plus, more than three-quarters of the accidents happened on roads with speed limits of more than 45 miles per hour.

What This Means to You

Whether they're in your car, spending some time with an older sibling who drives, going on a trip with Grandma, or carpooling to soccer practice with their best buds, the two best ways to keep kids of any age safe on the road are to:

1. Make sure all kids 12 and under ride in the back seat (in an age- and size-appropriate seat and properly restrained) every time. Riding in the back seat, ideally in the middle of the back seat, protects kids from possible injuries and even deaths that can happen when a passenger-side air bag deploys. Whenever they want to sit up front like big kids, explain that air bags can seriously hurt small children because they're designed to protect people with much bigger bodies.
2. Make sure kids are always strapped in how and where they should be for their age and size:
   • in a rear-facing car seat for babies until they're 1 year old and at least 20 pounds. It's best to try to keep your baby in a rear-facing seat as long as possible, but make sure to follow the height and weight guidelines outlined in your seat's manual. Convertible seats can face toward the rear until your baby is 20 to 35 pounds and at least 1 year old and can be turned to face forward after that. However, many of the convertible seats on the market allow a child to remain rear-facing up to 30 to 35 pounds.
   • a forward-facing seat — either an infant seat designed for larger babies or a convertible seat that can accommodate bigger babies, as well as toddlers and young preschoolers.
   • a booster or combination child seat for preschoolers and school-age kids. A belt-positioning booster seat sits on the car's seat and elevates your child so that the vehicle's lap and shoulder belt fit better, whereas a combination child seat is like a regular child safety seat, usually with a built-in five-point harness that ensures added safety. But nearly all combination seats with harnesses require that the harnesses be removed once a child is about 40 pounds. Only a few seats are equipped to hold children up to 65 to 80 pounds in a five-point harness.
   • a seat belt for older, bigger kids. Children can eventually use a seat belt once they're able to sit back against the vehicle's seat with their knees bent over the edge of the seat without slouching. This usually happens when a child reaches a height of 4 feet 9 inches.

When you head out onto the road with kids of any age in tow, here are some other tips to consider as they grow: