Higher Penalties For Unrestrained Children…Says an 8th Grader

It took an eighth-grader researching a civics project to get the attention of the public regarding a serious child safety issue.  Alexa Sepulveda was so moved by what she learned, she wrote a letter to the editor and it was published by Shore News Today on April 28,-2009  Her letter was so incredibly insightful that I wanted to share it with you here in its entirety:

To the editor:

Hello, my name is Alexa Sepulveda and I am an eighth-grade student at the Galloway Township Middle School. I am currently doing a civics project and my topic is increasing the penalty for driving with an unrestrained child in the car.

This has become an issue which, in my opinion, isn’t addressed enough. I believe that the penalty should be increased because it would deter parents from not putting their children in a car seat or booster seat. Restraining a child in a car will make everyone safer while driving.

For my project I have done some research, and the facts are frightening. A study conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in October 2002 showed that 42 percent of all unintentional childhood deaths were due to automobile crashes.

According to NHTSA, every day in the United States during 2006, an average of five children ages 14 and younger were killed due to crashes. During 2006, 6,983 car passengers age 14 and younger were involved in fatal crashes. For those children, 25 percent were unrestrained; among those who were fatally injured, 45 percent were unrestrained.

Most people think that they will never get into an accident, but it happens every day and you have to be prepared for when it does.

Many parents install car seats wrong, say they can’t pay for a seat or misuse it once it is installed. This is understandable for new parents or guardians whose financial situation isn’t good. For these reasons, many car dealerships, baby supply stores and police stations have places and times where you can take your car seat and they will install it in your car properly for you. If you are unable to buy a child restraint, there are many organizations that are more than willing to assist you in getting one.

As you can see, this is an ongoing issue all around us. In doing this topic as my project, I am hoping to make children safer, and to educate people about the need to restrain children to keep everyone safer.

Alexa reminds us of some important things:  accidents can happen…we must make sure we are prepared so our children are safe if they do…and we are not alone, there are others who can help us get there.  

Coincidentally, National Child Passenger Safety Week is coming on September 12th through 18th. It is sponsored by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). I’m hoping that all of you travelling in cars with young children take advantage of this opportunity to check that they are safely restrained.    And a great big hug to Alexa Sepulveda for caring.

In the Beginning

It all began with an idea…then some simple crayon drawings

I started with what wasn’t working in terms of how they were transporting kids…

…and moved on to what could work

…what would solve some major problems and make a difference

CONTEST #1: What’s Wrong With This Picture???

For the past decade ER and Grey’s Anatomy have been two of the most popular US hospital dramas. Medical consultants are a given at this level. Take a look at the following clips from both of these shows…both show an ambulance arriving at the ER with a young child.

Two questions: What’s right with these pictures? …and more important what’s wrong?

(scenes © ER and Grey’s Anatomy, all rights reserved. A special thanks to Young Estate Studios for creating these clips and making this possible)

• You are seeing a totally accurate picture of what happens today. Clearly someone was holding the child during transport – whether the parent strapped to a stretcher or the EMT or paramedic who is getting off the ambulance holding the child. Regardless, they did not unstrap the child and pick them up to hop out of the ambulance. The consultant got it right.

What’s wrong?

• The consultant got it right – someone was holding that child on the ambulance while transporting them to the hospital. Noone has strapped that child in and currently there’s no law – at least in the US as well as in a number of other countries – requiring them to do so. It is not the medic’s fault, for very little is available in terms of equipment to safely secure young children on ambulances. But what if that child needed CPR? Or even more important, what happens to that child if the unimaginable were to happen and that ambulance were to be hit?

Maybe they’re safer in an ambulance than a car? If we consider that we are highly likely to be going above the speed limit around curves and passing through intersections against the flow of traffic, I’m not sure I believe that. Also I can say without a doubt there is at least 1 child I know of that will never attend public school because we did not keep her secure in the back of an ambulance. So clearly what we’re doing is not working, but until we’re ready to say “this is unacceptable” nothing will change.

The law of averages

An EMT’s Story

Below is a story told to me by a young EMT back in 1995 – what is truly amazing is how little has changed:

1. The safety seat shoulder straps had to be removed from the infant/child
2. The infant/child had to be removed from the seat. (Remember that at this point in time, someone is standing up in a fast moving ambulance, holding a non-breathing infant in their arms, trying to support themselves and the child without falling over)
3. All of the sheets and blankets that were previously holding the seat in place on the stretcher have to be removed. (These get tossed on the floor and everyone involved keeps kicking them out of the way so that they can help during the trauma…in effect more time wasted).
4. The straps holding the child seat in place have to be found (under the bar of the seat) and released, and the seat has to be removed from the stretcher.
5. A short back-board must be placed on the stretcher so that heart compressions may begin
6. The baby is positioned on the board, and resuscitation can begin.

But that is not the end to this emergency. The infant/child is still sliding all over the place. The technician’s hands can easily be misplaced while doing compressions and there are many other dangers that can occur to this un-restrained child while racing to the hospital.

My partner and I conducted a run-through of this procedure using a doll as a prop Going as fast as we could, it took us 2 minutes and 4 seconds. According to the “Brady Emergency Care” book, “all cells in the body need oxygen for survival. Lethal changes will begin to take place in the brain within 4-6 minutes without a constant and adequate supply of oxygen. Brain cells begin to die within 10 minutes.” It’s clear that two minutes without air for an infant or child is way too long!”

The EMT went home and drew what she believed was needed to solve this problem. It is my hope that somehow, someday, I will help her do that.

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