THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, July 11, 1995 TAG: 9507110046
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MATTHEW BOWERS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 88 lines
BUCKLING CHILDREN INTO car-safety seats is an automatic thing for most parents and caregivers, but more than half do it wrong. Correcting this may require automakers to begin installing standardized four-point anchor systems, a federally appointed panel says.
Such a safety innovation - as with airbags and antilock brakes - would take years to materialize. In the meantime, to start reducing the number of children who die each year because they weren't in secure child-safety seats, the panel urges increased public-awareness efforts.
That's fine by Michelle A. Lowmack.
She, along with her her husband, L. V. Lowmack Jr., and their lawyer, has been trying to tell people about the problem of child-safety seats not working with many cars' seat belts since October. That's when her 21-month-old daughter, Mekia Eternity, died in a Suffolk car crash after her safety seat apparently flipped forward - even though the Lowmacks said it had been attached according to directions.
The Lowmacks and their lawyer have called newspapers and television programs urging more reports on the issue. Stories of Mekia's death and others around the country reached the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
In February, the NHTSA commissioned the 28-member panel to study safety seats and the problems with attaching them to seat belts that are designed for adults, and which can allow the safety seats to move during an accident.
``It's a big issue going on right now,'' Michelle Lowmack said. ``There's probably been other kids out there who have been injured that they don't know about yet. . . . It's not something that's happened to two people, three people, you know. It could happen to lots of people.''
The Blue Ribbon Panel on Child Restraint and Vehicle Compatibility - made up of car and safety-seat manufacturers, child-safety advocates and educators - released 27 recommendations on May 31.
Philip W. Haseltine, moderator of the panel and president of the American Coalition for Traffic Safety, said the odds are 50-50 or greater that child-safety seats aren't installed securely. Most parents and caregivers don't realize that many safety seats need special clips or seat-belt extenders to work correctly.
In Hampton Roads, inspections by police, fire and rescue workers and safety groups reveal that 80 percent to 90 percent of child-safety seats aren't installed properly, said Mary Ann Rayment, a Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles traffic-safety spokeswoman.
``We almost never find one that's correctly installed,'' said Rayment, who also finds incorrect instructions in some cars' manuals.
So the federal panel's first recommendation was for the NHTSA to consider requiring automakers to install a uniform anchoring system for safety seats. Such a system would be separate from seat belts, like the built-in Isofix four-point system now being tested in Europe but not commercially available.
Most of the panel's other recommendations were for increased consumer education about the proper location and manner of attaching child-safety seats. The education effort could include dealer demonstrations when cars are sold, easier-to-understand instructions in drivers' manuals and accompanying the safety-seats, and public-service announcements.
The NHTSA is testing the beltless Isofix system and designing a computerized educational program to be available in kiosks near where child-safety seats are sold, said Cheryl Neverman of the federal agency.
The NHTSA estimates that 40 percent of children ride unprotected by restraints. Of the 615 children killed nationwide in traffic accidents in 1993, 59 percent were unrestrained, and 203 could have been saved if properly restrained. Misused safety seats were directly blamed for 55 deaths in 1992.
In Virginia, all children under 4 years old must be in approved child-safety seats, whether in the front or back seat.
``If you don't know about something, how do you know to ask for it?'' asked Lowmack. ``That's my basic thing, is to let people be aware.''
MEMO: For more information, read your owner's manual or call the Virginia
Department of Motor Vehicles' local Community Traffic Safety Program at
363-3929, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Auto
Safety Hotline at (800) 424-9393, or the American Coalition of Traffic
Safety at (703) 243-7501.
ILLUSTRATION: File photo
L.V. Lowmack Jr. and Michelle Lowmack lost their 21-month-old
daughter in an accident when the seat belt around her car seat
loosened.
KEYWORDS: SAFETY BELTS CHILD SAFETY SEAT CAR SEAT by CNB