Most support booster seat law, poll says, but only 30 per cent of kids use them

<p>TORONTO – Most Canadian parents support giving the green light to a booster seat law, a new survey suggests. But national statistics show many aren’t following through when they take the wheel.</p> <p>The survey from Safe Kids Canada and Leger Marketing indicates most parents of kids under age 10 feel a booster seat is needed until children can use a seat belt on their own.</p> <p>The online poll of more than 1,000 adult Canadians found that 79 per cent of households support the idea of a booster seat law.</p> <p>Yet according to Transport Canada, only 30 per cent of Canadian children between the ages of four and eight are using the seats, despite existing laws on the books in most jurisdictions.</p> <p>Safe Kids Canada executive director Pamela Fuselli said the gap between parents’ knowledge and actions is larger than she imagined it would be.</p> <p>”We’ve heard from parents that they see the rear-facing and forward-facing car seats and they look like safety devices, but the booster seat doesn’t look like a safety device, so they think it’s optional to use,” she said.</p> <p>But when they discuss the reasons why the seats are required and their function, parents better understand why they need to use them, Fuselli added.</p> <p>Car crashes are the leading cause of death for Canadian kids under 14. Transport Canada says 3,500 children are injured each year, and on average, another 61 children are killed.</p> <p>Safe Kids Canada, the national injury prevention program of Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children, says a booster seat reduces the risk of injury by 60 per cent. Kids need to ride in them from the time they outgrow their forward-facing car seats until they are big enough to use a seat belt by itself.</p> <p>Among Canadian jurisdictions, Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut do not have mandatory booster seat legislation for children under four feet nine inches, or 146 centimetres, in height. </p> <p>Safe Kids Canada is advocating for booster seat legislation applying to all children who fall under that height marker regardless of where they live in Canada.</p> <p>Fuselli said they want to make it easier for parents to understand at what size and stage in development kids need to be in the seats, and they’re calling for laws to be standardized and harmonized across Canada.</p> <p>Salina Yee and her daughter, Peri, were involved in a head-on, two-vehicle collision in February. The incident left Yee with a broken arm and her eight-year-old daughter with seatbelt injuries as a result of the impact, landing the Grade 3 student in Sick Kids hospital for four days.</p> <p>Yee credits the booster seat with helping to minimize Peri’s injuries.</p> <p>”It probably raised her up enough so the seatbelt sat over her hips rather than across her abdomen,” she said Wednesday.</p> <p>”Most of the impact or stress of the accident was taken by the hip bones rather than the abdominal cavity, which has absolutely no sort of bony structure to protect it. So it probably kept her from having more internal injuries.”</p> <p>Yee said she’s informed on the height and weight requirements for kids to be both in and out of booster seats and encourages other parents to follow suit.</p> <p>”It saves lives. It saves you from being in the hospital with your kid worried sick that they’re not going to recover,” she said.</p> <p>”It’s just a simple thing … just put up with the hassle. It’s only going to be for a few years.”</p> <p>The survey findings were released as part of the national Safe Kids Week campaign, which aims to raise awareness about a specific type of injury and educate the public on prevention strategies.</p> <p>The theme for the week, dubbed “Give your kid a boost!”, is child passenger safety. It will run from May 30 to June 5.</p> <p>The national online survey of 1,029 Canadians took place from Dec. 2 to Dec. 9, 2010, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.</p> <p>—–</p> <p>Online:</p> <p>Safe Kids Canada: http://www.safekidscanada.ca</p&gt;