Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 5, 1994 TAG: 9401110246
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
There are a couple. The law requiring every child under 4 to be in an infant seat or a child-safety seat applies only when the child's parent or guardian is driving the car. And the law that requires children from 4 to 16 to wear a seat belt, and holds the driver responsible, applies only to children riding in a vehicle's front seat.
Yet an infant or toddler is not immune from injury when Mom or Dad leaves the driving to Grandma or a family friend, and older children are not immune when they ride in the back seat rather than the front. The evidence suggests that, while seat belts and shoulder harnesses are not perfect devices, riders are far better off in a seat belt than not, no matter where they are riding.
Virginia's Department of Motor Vehicles reports that since the state's seat-belt law went into effect in 1988, 192 lives have been saved. Safety experts figure that child-safety seats, when used correctly, are 71 percent effective in preventing fatalities, 67 percent effective in reducing the need for hospitalization, and 50 percent effective in preventing minor injuries.
There is little doubt about public support for measures aimed at increasing children's safety on the road. Virginia initiated a much-emulated, much-honored program, called Please Be Seated, that entirely depends on, and derives its considerable success from, citizen participation.
Motorists who notice a child who appears to be under the age of 4 riding unrestrained can fill out a post card giving the license number and description of the vehicle, where the incident occurred and a description of what the motorist observed.
This post card can be sent anonymously to the Please Be Seated program, which is run by the Office of Prevention and Children's Resources in the Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse Services. That office sends a friendly letter to the owner of the vehicle relating the incident that was observed and reminding the owner about the child-safety law in Virginia. It goes on to inform the recipient how to get a free child-safety seat if he or she can't afford one.
The emphasis is on "friendly." The anonymous complaints do not go on a vehicle owner's record, and there are no fines associated with receiving the letter. But the soft approach is proving effective. People who might otherwise view with alarm the idea of reporting on their fellow citizens can look out for the safety of passengers too young to take care of themselves without fear that they are creating a file on anyone in some state bureaucracy.
This is one program where offenders should be grateful to be caught. Since Please Be Seated started in 1991, the number of requests to the DMV for child-safety seats went from 4,148 in 1990 to 7,885 in 1992, to 15,903 in 1992. Preliminary figures for 1993 about match the previous year's: 15,034.
One woman wrote the state office before Christmas that a written warning had prompted her to start using safety seats for her children. A week later, they were in an accident. Without the warning, she wrote, they would not have been secured.
Responsible, loving parents don't want to slip through loopholes in laws that protect their children. There are two in the current law that legislators should close this year.
by CNB