MANDATORY CHILD RESTRAINT LAWS IN 11 STATES WERE EVALUATED FOR THEIR EFFECT ON MOTOR VEHICLE FATALITY RATES AMONG YOUNG CHILDREN. DATA FROM 1976 THROUGH 1983 WERE ANALYZED USING A MONTHLY TIME-SERIES DESIGN INVOLVING 54 MONTHS' PRE-LAW AND 12 MONTHS' POST-LAW DATA. THE 11 STATES COLLECTIVELY HAD A MEAN OF 8.8 AND A STANDARD DEVIATION OF 3.6 FATALITIES PER MONTH AMONG YOUNG CHILDREN. SUCH SMALL FREQUENCY COUNTS RESULTED IN A LARGE PROPORTION OF THE VARIATION BEING RANDOM. STATISTICAL POWER ANALYSES FOUND FATALITY REDUCTIONS OF 20% TO 25% FOLLOWING THE CHILD RESTRAINT LAWS WOULD BE STATISTICALLY SIGNIFICANT. REDUCTIONS OF SUCH A MAGNITUDE WERE NOT FOUND FOR YOUNG CHILDREN. BASED ON THESE FINDINGS, WE RECOMMEND THAT EVALUATIONS OF HIGHWAY SAFETY POLICIES FOCUSING ON A SPECIFIC AGE GROUP WITHIN A SINGLE STATE NOT BE LIMITED TO ANALYSES OF TRAFFIC FATALITIES ALONE. STUDIES EMPLOYING ANALYSES OF THE LARGER NUMBERS OF CRASH-INDUCED INJURIES HAVE INDENTIFIED MODEST BUT IMPORTANT CASUALTY REDUCTIONS NOT FOUND WHEN ANALYZING FATALITIES ALONE.(Author/publisher).
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