www.stnonline.com 27
shoulder between the neck and arm when adjusted to suit the child? 4. Is the lap belt as low as possible,
touching the thighs? 5. Can the child stay seated like this for
the whole trip? If the answer is “no” for any of the
points on the 5-Step Test, then the seat belt does not properly fit. A shoulder belt that rides too high and crosses a child’s neck or face will likely be placed behind the child’s back or under her arm, where it would be ineffective for restraining the upper torso. A misplaced lap belt that crosses the belly rather than bone can cause the rupture of internal organs and even spinal damage in a crash. To avoid these risks, a child safety re-
straint system with a harness should be provided for the student. Tis will often be the case for the youngest riders, such as those preschoolers being transport- ed to and from Head Start programs. In fact, Head Start transportation is gov- erned by federal rules (CFR 45 Part 1310) that require all children to be properly restrained in an age- and weight-appro- priate child restraint system. Even in a passenger car, proper restraint for a Head Start-aged child is a child restraint with a harness, not a booster seat. NHTSA released a report last summer analyzing state and national data that found that, when 3- and 4-year-olds in passenger car crashes rode in boosters rather than child restraints with harnesses, they were 27 percent more likely to sustain injuries (ranging from non-disabling to fatal). Ear- lier this year, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the National Highway Traf- fic Safety Administration each released updated guidelines discouraging transi- tioning children prematurely from every stage of child restraints, specifying that a
Using a Booster Seat Correctly — If at All
Te appropriateness of boosters on
buses was analyzed as lap-shoulder belt technology for school buses came onto the scene. Anticipating the likelihood that best-practice recommendations would be revised, the chapter on booster seats was removed from NHTSA’s eight-hour “Child Passenger Safety Restraint Systems on School Buses” national training course in 2008. You may also find that this advice provides an update to other child safety restraint resources, such as to the guidance suggested on page 56 of Safe Ride News’ “School Bus Safety Handbook.”
car seat with a harness might be appropriate for some children to as old as eight years of age. Safety restraints for children on school buses, called child
safety restraint systems or CSRS, include traditional car seats, vest products, bus seats with built-in harnesses and bus-specific CSRS, like the SafeGuard STAR or BESI ProTech seat. Resources for using these CSRSs on school buses, including the School Bus Safety Handbook, can be found at
www.saferidenews.com. Safety Belt Safe U.S.A.,
www.carseat.org, developed the Five- Step Test for seat belt readiness, modified in this article for a school bus scenario. ■
Donaldson is the editor of Safe Ride News, and Mason is the magazine’s CPS school bus specialist. STN’s Ryan Gray contrib- uted to this article.
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