Child Passenger Safety Research Enters a New Phase
For the past decade, Partners for Child Passenger Safety (PCPS) served as the world’s largest child-focused motor vehicle crash surveillance system and an important source of data for child passenger safety. PCPS informed new product development, test protocols and regulations, education, policy, and medical practice.
Publication of PCPS findings, along with outreach initiatives, have helped to dramatically improve child passenger safety. State and federal child restraint laws and testing standards have been substantially enhanced. Between 1999 and 2007, age-appropriate restraint use among children under age 9 in the PCPS study population increased from 51 percent to 78 percent. Booster seat use rose from 4 percent to approximately 36 percent.
Since the project began, CHOP researchers estimate that appoximately 2,085 child occupants' lives were saved between 1998 and 2006. This is due, in part, to advancements in legislation, public education, and vehicle and restraint system design resulting from information generated by this project.
The Partners for Child Passenger Safety study ended in December 2007. Today there is no child-focused crash surveillance in the U.S.
Building a National Resource
After completing a feasibility study to explore the creation of a new child-focused surveillance system with a different source for identifying child crash cases, the Center for Injury Research and Prevention at CHOP is committed to securing long-term funding for this new system.
In the meantime, the Center’s outreach and research teams will continue to analyze the PCPS data, which will remain informative for years to come. These analyses will be shared with industry, regulators, policymakers, public health educators, and the media through scientific publication.
Every Child Deserves a Safe Ride
Children are not small adults. They have unique safety needs that cannot be extrapolated from adult data. With the increasing complexity of vehicles and restraint systems, the need to ensure our children’s safety is greater today than ever in the past.
This site can help you learn how to keep your son or daughter safe in the car. It also includes the latest research news to keep you informed.