Air Bags Risky For Young Teens

Miranda Hitti, "Air Bags Risky For Young Teens", CBS News, June 6,
2005,
Link:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/...in699982.shtml

Do children need to wait until they're 15 years old to be protected by
a front-seat air bag in the event of a crash?

The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration recommends
that children 12 years old and younger "should always ride properly
restrained in a rear seat." Now, a new study suggests that air bags
protection may start at age 15.

"Children up to 14 years of age may be at risk for serious preventable
injury when seated in front of a passenger air bag, and children 15 to
18 years of age seem to experience protective effects of air bag
presence and deployment," say Craig Newgard, MD, MPH, and colleagues in
June's issue of Pediatrics.

About Air Bags

Air bags have saved many lives. However, because they must deploy very
quickly, their force may cause injuries. Those injuries are usually
"very minor abrasions or burns," says the web site of the National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

Serious or even fatal injuries can occur when someone is very close to
or in direct contact with an air bag module when the air bag deploys,
says the NHTSA. The NHTSA recommends that drivers leave at least 10
inches from their breastbone to the center of the steering wheel.

Newgard and colleagues say a 1995 NHTSA news release contained a strong
warning that air bags may pose significant risks of injury and death
for children, and that the NHTSA has required all new passenger
vehicles to carry warning labels with the 12-and-under guideline
starting in 1997.

Study's Findings

Newgard's study is based on 3,790 crash survivors aged 1 month to 18
years. The crashes occurred over an eight-year period; serious injuries
for children riding in the front passenger seat were noted.

Very few children (1.6%, or 60 kids) suffered serious injuries in the
crashes. "Children 0 to 14 years of age involved in frontal collisions
seemed to be at increased risk of serious injury from air bag presence
and deployment," says the study.

"Among children 15 to 18 years of age involved in frontal collisions,
there was a protective effect on injury from both air bag presence and
deployment," says the study. "These findings persisted in analyses
involving all collision types."

Age was the only cutoff point the researchers identified, though they
also considered height and weight and adjusted for "important crash
factors." Newgard works at Oregon Health and Science University's
Center for Policy and Research in Emergency Medicine.

NHTSA's Response

Rae Terry, NHTSA spokesman, tells WebMD that he hasn't seen the study,
but the recommendation that children age 12 and under "is still a good
recommendation."

"Everything we've seen from the real world indicates that 12 and under
is a reasonable recommendation," he says. If parents choose to keep
their kids in the back until age 15, they're free to do so. "There is
certainly nothing wrong with parents erring on the side of caution,"
says Terry.