To evaluate the effectiveness of state laws that mandate the use of child safety seats the authors conducted pooled time series analyses, using data for all fifty states covering the period 1975 to 1992. The primary dependent variabl is the number of fatalities suffered by children ages 0-5 years as occupants in motor vehicle crashes. Occupant fatalities of 6-10 year olds serves as a comparison group to control for trends not explicitly operationalized in the model. The results indicate that child safety seats laws significantly reduce motor vehicle fatalities of the covered age group. In addition, more lives are saved by higher age requirements. In contrast, child safety seat laws were not related to occupant fatalities of children 6-10 years of age.
Samenvatting