It's the Doak TC Weekly Safety Reminder (WSR) #4 If I told you that any kids in your household under 15 were 40% more likely to be injured if they left the house through the front door, what would you do? If the answer was as simple as having them leave through the back or garage door would you do it? I'll bet you would. It'd be a pretty simple way of protecting them from harm.
But, what if your kid under 15, or under 10, or under 5 said that they just liked going out the front door better so that's what they're going to do? Now what would you do? I'll bet you'd treat it the same as many other issues you perceive to be dangerous- you'd tell them that they're going out the back door because it is much safer and you're the parent.
Now, grandma comes over to stay with the kids and says "I want my grandkids to be happy and so I'm going to let them go out the front door." Now what will you do as the parent? Yea I know, that's harder, but you'd probably try to convince the caregiver that the rules in your house are that all kids exit from the back door because the front door is much more dangerous.
Now, what if I told you that the fact is that the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) reports that kids under 15 are 40% more likely to be injured in the front seat of cars. Well, I'll bet many of you would say "that's different." I know that because CHOP also tells us that 43% of children under 13 were reported to be front seat riders in one of their studies.
This is a really simple way to protect your kids and grandkids. They are enduring no hardship by riding in the back, now are they? By law in Michigan, everyone under 4 has to be in the back seat anyway. And, as you can see by best practice, kids up in to their teen years are much safer riding in the back seat. They're 40% more likely to be injured in the front seat.
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