Officials at the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) urged parents to use booster seats to protect children who have outgrown child safety seats and are still too small for adult seat belts. NHTSA surveys indicate that less than seven percent of children aged 4 to 8, who weigh 40 to 80 pounds, use booster seats. Children using adult seat belts are at risk of slipping out of the belts and being ejected, or they can suffer internal injuries in a crash. While approximately 70 percent of children aged 3 and under are properly restrained, the number decreases to only 20 percent for children aged 4 to 9. For more information on proper child safety restraints, see the National Academy of Pediatrics recommendations at www.aap.org, and the NHTSA site at www.dot.gov/affairs/nhtsa
Office
of School Health
University of Colorado Denver
Campus Box F-541 P.O. Box 6508,
Aurora, CO 80045
303-724-0644
• http://www.uchsc.edu/schoolhealth
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