New FAA Recommendations for Transport of Children on Planes
Reported on ABC News by Tanya Rivero, and in an article written by Lisa Stark and Jordyn Phelps in ABC World News with Dianne Sawyer.
The current Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) policy, allows children under the age of t
wo, to fly free, if seated on an adult’s lap; the adult is safely restrained, the child is not.
As recently as March 2011, the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration (NHTSA), in collaboration with the American Academy of Pediatricians (AAP), changed many parameters for the safe transport of infants and children when it recommended new guidelines for age, weight and seat orientation for safety seats in cars. (See the article on the Pediatric Safety website here).
On May 24, 2011, Randy Babbitt, an FAA administrator, announced at a press conference in Washington, DC, that the FAA has come up with a new set of recommendations for the airline industry, regarding the transport of children on airplanes, who weigh forty pounds-or-less. The Association of Flight Attendants (AFA) has concurred with those recommendations.
Focusing on the safety of child passengers on a plane, the FAA believes that it is much safer to transport a forty-or-under pound child if he/she is secured in a FAA-approved safety seat that is properly attached to an airplane seat of his/her own, than if that child sits on an adult’s lap during flight.
Although the FAA clearly stated its recommendation, it will not make it a requirement, at this time, because of the concern that cost issues (the purchase of an additional seat) may deter families from flying. They also maintain that It is still safer for the child to fly while seated on an adult’s lap, than it is for that child to be a safely-restrained passenger in a car.
Overweight Children are NOT Adequately Protected in Car Seats
For the past ten years, the news media has consistently focused our attention on the fact that obesity is on the rise; that it has become a major problem in 
the United States, and that childhood obesity, in particular, has put young children at-risk for a multitude of health-related issues.
One surprising health-related issue stems from the fact that many infants and toddlers are being transported in car seats that are not safe for them to be riding in, and I am not referring to the improper installation of those seats. The problem I AM referring to is the fact that when car seats are crash-tested, the crash-dummies that are used to simulate the effects of an accident impact do not reflect the overweight child population being transported.
With so many young obese children today, common sense should dictate that the crash-dummy’s weight and dimensions more closely match that of the children using the car seats being tested.
In an article on the ThirdAge.Com website, March 29, 2011, under Boomer Health and Lifestyle, Katherine Rausch highlights a problem that although acknowledged for some time, has been awaiting a solution since 2004, but researchers have not come up with a product. The National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration is using smaller adult version dummies for child crash-testing. Why? According to a recent article in the Washington Post, it’s because crash test dummies are expensive to develop and funding is not readily available to develop larger “life-like” child test dummies. This leaves child safety seat manufacturers self-regulating their own products. It also means that seats made just a few years ago to hold 65lb children are now marketed for those up to 85lbs.
It appears that heavier-weight crash-dummies have been in development for adults for decades now. Why haven’t overweight children been given the same attention?
With so many recent news reports about the American Academy of Pediatrics’ and NHTSA’s “new safety seat guidelines”, are we deluding ourselves into thinking our kids are safe?
A Public Meeting on Safe Transport for Kids on Ambulances
In the Federal Register, dated July 19, 2010, a notice and invitation was posted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration of the Department of Transportation (NHTSA). This Thursday – August 5th – NHTSA will be hosting a Public Meeting to hear comments regarding the newly-submitted draft recommendations for the safe transport of children in emergency ground ambulances.
What wonderful news! It’s about time that positive steps are finally being taken in the effort to establish consistent Federal guidelines for the safe transport of infants and children in emergency vehicles. This is most definitely a banner day for the Emergency Medical Service (EMS).
The issue of inconsistent guidelines for child emergency transport was first highlighted in a 1998 survey of state requirements for child safety restraints in ambulances, and the resulting report was the first to identify the many variations in guidelines existing from one state to another.
In 1999, a national consensus committee was convened to review EMS child transport practices. The resulting document, the “Do’s And Don’ts of Transporting Children in an Ambulance”, provided general guidance for EMS practitioners in the field. This document has remained the guide for the industry from then until now, even though protocols and practices remained inconsistent, often varied across jurisdictions and sometimes provided limited or inadequate guidance.
This problem is finally being publically recognized. The July 19th issue of the Federal Register states: “Currently there are no Federal standards or standard protocols among EMS and child safety professionals in the U.S. for how best to transport children safely in ground ambulances from the scene of a traffic crash or a medical emergency to a hospital or other facility. The absence of consistent national standards and protocols regarding the transportation of children in ground ambulances complicates the work of EMS professionals and may result in the improper and unsafe restraint of highly vulnerable child passengers. As a result, EMS agencies, advocates and academicians have turned to NHTSA for leadership on this issue.”
In September of 2008, in recognition of the need for improving child-oriented, safe, emergency ambulance transport, NHTSA initiated a project called: “Solutions To Safely Transport Children In Emergency Vehicles”, and formed a Working Group of experts in the field of Emergency Medical Services for the purpose of “drafting consistent national recommendations that will be embraced by local, state and national EMS organizations, enabling them to reduce the frequency of inappropriate and potentially unsafe transportation of ill, injured, or not sick/uninjured children in ground ambulances.”
In June of 2009, this website, Pediatric Safety.net was launched. This site made public awareness of the lack of safety guidelines and the use of inappropriately sized, non harness–equipped stretchers for child transport a primary concern. As a means of promoting awareness of the problem, pediatricsafety.net established a cause, ANSR (Ambulances Need Safety Regulations) for kids, which included a petition to be forwarded to each signer’s congressmen. The hope was that if enough people signed the petition, attention would force the government to play an active role in finding a viable solution to the problem.
In its “Innovation” section, pediatricsafety.net followed the development of the PedREST, a child-size safety transport system for infants and young children. From its humble beginnings as a crayon drawing concept idea, to a video prototype and now a physical prototype, the PedREST seemed to be a credible answer to the problem. Designed by an Emergency Medical Technician, it could, with a small amount of additional design modification by a qualified engineer, become this desperately needed safety transport device.
I am the cause advocate for Pediatric Safety. Two of my daughters were key in developing the PedREST. It took 15 years to get the PedREST through the patent process and the building of a prototype. Once created, it was disheartening to realize that companies were not falling all over themselves for the opportunity to take the idea and help commercialize it, so that it could be put to use as quickly as possible. What could be more important than protecting the life of an infant or small child already in the care of the very people committed to doing just that? What was even more upsetting was the fact that, even though so many articles had been written about the need for government intervention to establish industry guidelines, nothing had been publicly introduced over all these years to show that steps were at least being taken to that end.
Statistics say it all:*
- Approximately 1 in 10 patient ambulance transports involve children. The result: 6 Million Children are transported by emergency medical vehicles each year
- 3 out of every 100 transports involve children under 5 years of age. The result: approx. 1.8 million children are transported by emergency vehicles each year
- 5,000 ambulance crashes per year with minor to fatal results. The result: approx. 4 child fatalities per year
I think the time has finally come for action!
- Participate in the public hearing concerning the draft recommendations on safe transport for children on ambulances. Register for the webinar by sending an email to: sandy.sinclair@dot.gov
- Please sign the ANSR petition and tell your congressman/woman that we require that our kids be transported safely on ambulances – anything else is unacceptable!
Help us help NHTSA pass formal regulations and guidelines to be used on local, state, and national levels to keep our kids safe when they need it the most.
With thanks from all my grandchildren, and from me.
Sandy Schnee
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Reference:
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Dr Nadine Levick, MD/MPH, “Ambulance Transport Safety – Where is the State of the Art?”, Child Passenger Safety Conference NHTSA Region II, Sept 26th, 2008
Air Travel Safety for Kids
The Yapta Blog is an online site for comments and ideas concerning travel-related situations for the travel industry. In an article on air travel and child safety dated May 28, 2010, Jeff Pecor wrote that the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) was recommending that infants and young children flying on airplanes, be strapped into their own safety seat to protect them in case of air turbulence or a survivable crash.
Though not enforceable, and just a suggestion for now, the NTSB is hoping that at some time in the future, steps would be taken to make it a requirement that anyone traveling with a young child would have to purchase a seat for that child and secure him/her in a safety harness. If they are successful in their mission, no longer would anyone be allowed to fly while holding a child in their lap. If turbulence causes the plane to suddenly lose altitude, that child could become a projectile and be seriously injured. It could be that and worse if the plane is involved in a crash and the unrestrained child is thrown a distance from the crash site. It appears to me, that a very important part of providing protection for our youngest citizens has virtually been ignored for a long time.
I appreciate the fact that Mr. Pecor has brought the information from the NTSB to our attention, and by doing so, has shown a spotlight on the inadequacy of the airline industry to make available to young children, the same protection from injury accorded to that child’s parents.
It’s a very small leap that brings my mind to another industry with a similar deficit in its ability to protect the young children in its care. I’m referring to a vocation where the saving of lives can be, and often is, an everyday occurrence. Emergency Medical Services (EMS) is far behind in being able to offer the safe transport of children with equipment that is specifically designed and sized for pediatric patients. And even though the equipment is available, no state or federal agency has stepped up to the plate to do whatever it takes to support it, test it, and make it available. It’s very scary when you consider the number of children being transported unprotected in the passenger compartment of a speeding ambulance, flying through intersections on a daily basis. I am left questioning why the NTSB has, to my knowledge, neither lobbied for, nor put pressure on Congress to enact laws that specifically regulate how care is administered to infants and young children in the rear compartment of an ambulance.
I believe that both situations call out for the correction of a serious deficit in the way children are transported; one, as a passenger on a plane, two, as a passenger in an ambulance or other rescue vehicle.
Both situations require immediate action and new regulations. There are children’s lives at stake.
Child Passenger Safety is a 24/7/365 Job
For one week, Child Passenger Safety was on everyone’s mind! The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Ad Council combined to make an all-out effort to get the message out: parents and other caregivers need to make the right choices regarding child safety car seats…and resources are available…help is available.
But one week is not enough time to get the message out to all who need to hear it. Child passenger safety, when it comes to choosing the right car seat, installing it properly, and making sure it that it is appropriately latched, is an issue that requires addressing 24 hours a day/ 7days a week/ 365 days a year.
To that end, the message has to continue. Everyone you know who transports young children needs to know that free help is available for the purpose of making sure that they are choosing safe car seats and using them properly.
On Twitter: Any child passenger safety questions will be answered by an actual safety expert. Go to the @ChildSeatSafety account on Twitter.
On Facebook: The page at http://facebook.com/childpassengersafety is the place for parents to learn about the LATCH program, location of inspection offices, and any other up-to-date information from NHTSA.
On the Website: Created by the Ad Council, in conjunction with NHTSA, http://childcarsafety.adcouncil.org/ is a website for parents to go to in order to be able to view instructional videos, locate inspection stations, and take a fun quiz to make sure you have the correct information regarding child passenger safety.
The more caregivers who become aware of, and utilize this information, the more childrens’ lives we save.
