Infants are eight (8) times more likely to be responsible for accident-causing distractions than do adult passengers

(source UNC/AAA)

COLORADO SPRINGS COLORADO, July 27, 2004. In the last few years the University of North Carolina (UNC) under the auspices' of the AAA Foundation for Highway Safety conducted a multiphase study dealing with causal relations between driver distraction and road accidents. The study got impetus from the fact that there are many new technologies in automobiles that can, and do, distract drivers. Of particular interest was cell telephone because of their rapid proliferation, and because of their visibility.

The last phase of the UNC/AAA study was released in early 2004 with a strong indictment regarding the Government push for all infants to be placed in the back seat. The study which placed monitors in cars, a very effective means for observing events without prejudice, clearly indicates that "properly" placed infants in the back seats of vehicles are eight (8) times as likely to cause crashes than are adult passenger. The study also concluded that older children were four times as likely to cause accident-generating distractions, as do adult passengers.

Since there is no question about the dangerous situation created by placing infants in the back seat, especially when only said infant and a single caretaker/driver are in a car; it is time to have a study dedicated to infant distraction, not as a subset of another studies. Relegating the subject of infant distractions to a mere segment of another study, gives a skewed picture of dangers cause by the situation.

It is generally recognized that when a study, or a control, is focused on a single subject, the effort can be much more effective than when it is a subset of another study, or control. This, if you will, is very much like having a computer manage one well defined and focused task versus a general purpose computer which is allowed to incidentally mange an additional task in the background...

Due to the severity of driver-distractions due to infants "properly" placed in the back seat, especially in those cases when they are in a vehicle with only a driver, GAI will be proposing to the AAA Foundation for Highway Safety, and to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) a program to demonstrate the urgency of finding means for alleviating the problem of infants in the back seat. GAI hereby invites responsible child safety advocates who have information and knowledge to share on the subject to participate in this very important study.

GAI proposes an approach in which a large numbers of vehicles leaving on trips ("on-road") with infants be studied to establish the ratio of infants in the back, versus the front seat. Then, with that baseline data on hand, it is proposed the national database will be studied from crash sites to see if the ratio of infants in the back versus front seats shifts, as previous work demonstrated. Should, as expected, the number proves as severe previous work suggested, NHTSA and the automotive industry will be urged to come up with a better solution which will allow infants to ride in the front seat, with, or without the present of airbags, and do so without additional delays.

For additional information please contact Dan Goor, at: buppahgai@aol.com
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