SUVs no safer than passenger cars for children, new s...( PartNew research from The Children's Ho...),Health

PartNew research from The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia shows that children riding in SUVs have similar injury risks to children who ride in passenger cars. The study, published today in the journal Pediatrics, found that an SUV's increased risk of rolling over during a crash offset the safety benefits associated with larger, heavier-weight vehicles.

The study, part of an ongoing research collaboration of Children's Hospital and State Farm Insurance Companies, looked at crashes reported to State Farm involving 3,933 child occupants between the ages of 0 and 15 years who were in either SUVs or passenger cars that were model year 1998 or newer. Rollover contributes significantly to risk of injury in both vehicle types and occurred twice as frequently in SUVs. Children involved in rollover crashes were three times more likely to be injured than children in non-rollovers.

Children who were not properly restrained in a car seat, booster seat or seatbelt during an SUV rollover were at a 25-fold greater risk for injury as compared to appropriately restrained children. Nearly half of the unrestrained children in these crashes (41 percent) suffered a serious injury versus only 3 percent of appropriately restrained children in SUVs. Overall, injury risk for appropriately restrained children in passenger cars is less than 2 percent.

"SUVs are becoming more popular as family vehicles because they can accommodate multiple child safety seats and their larger size may lead parents to believe SUVs are safer than passenger cars," said Dennis Durbin, MD, M.S.C.E., an emergency physician and clinical epidemiologist at Children's Hospital, and co-author on the study. "However, people who use an SUV as their family vehicle should know that SUVs do not provide superior protection for child occupants and that age- and size -appropriate restraints and rear seating for children under 13 years are critically important because of the increased risk of a rollov
'"/>

Contact: Dana Mortensen
Mortensen@email.chop.edu
267-426-6092
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
4-Jan-2006

Page: 1 2
Related medicine news :

1. Swedish snus much safer than smoking but linked to pancreatic cancer
2. Performing surgery on a beating heart may be safer
3. Researchers devise safer way to dose life-saving heart drug
4. Report card on Vancouvers safer injecting facility
5. Mayo Clinic study could lead to safer pesticides
6. Mesh can make weight-loss surgery safer
7. Planning guidebook to help make walking safer and more convenient
8. Making heart surgery intervention safer
9. Transporter is possible target for safer pain medicine
10. Carbon-based quantum dots could mean greener, safer technology in medicine and biology
11. Students feel safer in ethnically diverse schools, UCLA psychologists report