Beware the Unused Seatbelt, Even When Correctly Unused

What the heck kind of headline is Beware the Unused Seatbelt, Even When Correctly Unused? Well, I'll explain that (you knew I would).

See, when you bring your family to a Safe Kids child seat check station and we check 'em to make sure they're all traveling securely in your vehicle, we fill out a form that documents what we're doing. It's a way of making sure that we don't forget anything. Well, question #22 asks if we Discussed Unused Seatbelt Dangers. The question refers to one particular danger that you wouldn't expect, even when you are correctly leaving the belt unused. Honestly, though, there are several dangers related to unused seatbelts. First let's look at the Question 22 issue and then cover the rest.

When you install a child seat in your vehicle you're going to secure it with either the LATCH (Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children) system or the seatbelt, but not both. If you're using LATCH you'll be attaching those two hooks from the bottom of your child seat to the anchors located in the bight of your vehicle seat. Then, once you've attached the tether, you're ready to load up a kid. The seatbelt, in this case, is correctly used by not being used.

So, here's the potential problem. That unused seatbelt is just left hanging there, and some children have grabbed hold and used it as a plaything. If they pull it all the way out it can lock, just like it is supposed to. When it slurps back up into the retractor it can tangle around the child and potentially strangle them. The fix for this is to simply buckle the belt before installing the child seat. It'll remain securely behind the child seat and out of reach.

That's the issue that Question 22 is meant to address. Here are some other unused seatbelt dangers:

3. There's the smacking hazard posed by those heavy unattached lap buckles and latchplates left sitting on the seat. It's normally in the middle of the back seat of older vehicles. Unattached, they're left to swing wildly at the end of their webbing and smack into whatever is next to them in the crash. Simply attach the belt and pull it tight when not in use. Potential smacker eliminated.

2. If you have a booster seat in the vehicle and you're on your way to pick up its normal occupant, put the seatbelt around it and buckle it in anyway. Yes, even though it is not being used. See, that 20 pound seat will have a relative force of 600 pounds in a 30 MPH crash. You don't want 600 pounds of force hurling at you from the back seat. Buckle the seat in. And,,,,

The #1 unused seatbelt danger is to leave anyone in the vehicle unrestrained. In a crash, an unrestrained person hurls into whatever and wherever; often that means right out of the vehicle. Outside of the vehicle is a VERY bad place to be when a crash is happening. A VERY bad place to be. Plus, remember that 20 pound seat slamming into you with 600 pounds of force (at only 30 MPH)? Now think of a human and their heavy head being hurled at everyone else in the car. Easy solution: everyone is restrained properly all the time. Crashes happen everywhere.

Be safe.

The Doak TC Weekly Safety Reminder: Beware the Backpack

It's the Doak TC Weekly Safety Reminder with an advisory for anyone picking their kids up from school (or having friends or grand parents pick their kids up at school). Please have those kids stow the backpack before getting in the car.

No, the boy in this photo is not that tall and not normally sitting quite so close to the airbag deployment zone I'm assuming. However, with his overflowing backpack still attached to his torso, he's nicely placed for maximum smacking force when the airbag deploys because grandma's foot has slipped off of the brake because she's balancing little sister on her lap and progressing through a 50-car queue that has small children crossing through it. Wait,,,,,, did I just say balancing little sister on her lap? OK, one peril at a time: back to the backpack.

This is not an unusual scenario, by any means. This is what I have seen (and photographed) at school dismissal time all over the state. Hundreds of kids are spewed out the school doors clinging to their backpacks and then slurped up into the family vehicle and whisked away with barely enough time to pull the door closed behind them. No, they probably can't fit a seatbelt on that way, and no, they probably aren't in the back seat (if a front seat is available), and no, they may not even have space to sit down so they have to stand, and no, they can't possibly fit in a booster seat, and no, they're probably not traveling lawfully and no, they may not remain in the car if there's a crash. BUT, that car's going to make it out of the parking lot as fast as it can, and, heck- they're just going home, right?

Let's review: By law in Michigan, all kids under 4 must be in the back seat, and best practice tells us that nobody should really be in that front seat exposed to an airbag until at least 13. By law in Michigan everyone under 8 years old or less than four feet nine inches (whichever comes first) must be secured in a properly used child safety seat, most likely a booster at that age. And, by law in Michigan, anyone under 16 years old must be restrained via child seat or seatbelt no matter where they are sitting.

Let's review one more thing: No matter what the law is, crashes happen everywhere and kids get hurt; often needlessly. It honestly takes very little time to be safe. Stow the backpack where it needs to be, and stow the kids they way they need to be.

Be safe.

Beware the Daily "Carnival Ride" that Squishes Kids Like Toothpaste

Yup, there's a reason why little kids aren't allowed on adult carnival rides that fling them about at various speeds and smack 'em into barriers. The rides aren't made for little kids- that's obvious. There's also a reason why carnivals have rules for this and do not leave the decision to parents and care providers.

So, I was driving home from the farmer's market on Saturday and there was a big SUV approaching in the other lane. In their front passenger seat I could see a tiny head just poking above the dash. Couldn't see most of the kid attached to that head because they were hidden below. Couldn't see the shoulder belt because, well, it's designed for an adult so it was behind the kid. This ain't no carnival ride. It's variable speed ride being operated by a human within a highly unpredictable and unforgiving traffic environment.

When the crash happens, kid will be beset by a variety of violent forces. One will obviously be the airbag that is meant to spread crash forces over an adult human. Instead it will be crashing into a small human whose unrestrained head and torso will slam into it in ways the bag as never designed to respond to. It's like asking a kid to catch a screaming line drive hardball without a glove.

The other violent force that kid will be dealing with will be that lap belt that, prior to the crash, was positioned very nicely right across his tummy filled with all of those nice squishy organs. During the crash that tummy and those organs will be wrapped around the lap belt as it pulls through the squishy parts on it's way to contacting and stretching the spinal cord. Have a look at the toothpaste tube photo at the top of the page and imagine that. This is of course assuming that kid doesn't just slip right out from under the adult lap belt and get flung out onto the road when the vehicle flips over.

Now, I'm sure that the person driving the SUV is delighted to have their small child/grandchild sitting right up next to them in the front. It's probably right where kid asked to be, and we all want kid to be happy. And, of course, they're just driving to town.

Here's the law in the physical world: A child's body parts are not developed enough to cope well with crash forces in the front seat of a vehicle until they are at least 13 years old. They just aren't. The law in Michigan may say the kids 4+ years old can sit in the front seat, but, like the carnival ride, they just aren't developed enough to ride there safely.

Here's the other law in the physical world: Seatbelts do not normally fit humans until they are at least 4' 9" tall and weigh about 80 pounds. Until a human is that size, the seatbelt just does not normally fit. A good fitting and properly used booster seat places the lap belt low in the child's hips and shoulder belt across the chest in the proper location. In Michigan that's the law until the child is 8 or 4' 9". But, guess what- in a crash, the laws of the physical world trump the laws of any state until the person actually fits in that belt.

Children 4 - 8 who ride in boosters are 45 percent less likely to sustain injuries in crashes than children restrained by belts alone. If you could reduce a child's chance of getting the flu by 45 percent by doing something just as simple as using a booster seat, most people would consider that a pretty easy rule in their family.

So, beware treating kids like the toothpaste tube. Fortunately, booster seat manufacturers are getting much better at making these valuable safety devices. Next time I'll cover how to choose one.

Be safe.