The U Federal Aviation Administrati...

The U Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is calculate uponed to propose that all children younger than couple years be required to travel in child safety restraint theorys This ruling would require adults to purchase seats specifically for children younger than sum of two units years instead of allowing these children to travel upon an adult's lap. The American Academy of Pediatrics Committee upon Injury and Poison Prevention released a policy statement supporting the FAA propos order However, there is some trouble that these regulations may force more travelers to use automobiles to transport children forward long trips. Newman and colleagues performed a risk and economic analysis of the propos of the present day regulations focused on the number of thwarted child air-crash deaths, the entrance for persons switching to car travel above which the risk of the policy outdos its benefit, and the sumptuousness per death prevented.

The first input was the estimated number of enplanements (defined as "a receipts passenger boarding an aircraft") of children younger than couple years. Next, an estimate of the number of deaths of children in this age cluster was calculated if the use of child safety restraint a whole s was in place. The nearest step was to calculate the relative risk of death in survival plane crashes in unrestrained versus restrained young children, and the risk of restrained children compared with overall passenger risk.

With regard to field travel, the calculations included the average size of the family traveling and the average U motor vehicle occupancy. Additional calculations included average motor vehicle deaths by 100 million vehicle-miles traveled and average unadulterated number of miles driven by diverted enplanements.

The use of child safety restraint rules for airplane travel would preclude about 0.4 child air-crash deaths by year. The increase in deaths resulting from increased car travel because of the propos lordship on airplane restraints for children could exce the number of deaths interrupted by child safety restraints if 5 to 10 percent of families switch from air to car travel. This percentage is unlikely to exce 15 percent although it be pendents on assumptions concerning trip distance, driver characteristics, and the effectiveness of child safety restraint seats. If there was no increase in car travel with the implementation of the proposal, the trap cost per life saved would be approximately $64 million.

The authors determine that a policy requiring the use of child safety restraint schemes for children younger than brace years during air travel could issue in a net increase in deaths and injuries in this age cluster if the cost of the seats is high enough that principally families divert to car travel to save money

Newman TB et al. forces and costs of requiring child-restraint a whole s for young children traveling onward commercial airplanes. Arch Pediatr Adolesc M October 2003; 157:969-74

EDITOR'S NOTE: The conception of improving child safety during air travel has created lawsuit on both sides of the issue. The use of child safety restraints during air travel would abridge the death rate for infants involved in airplane crashes. Unfortunately, any increase in airfare that deductions from implementing this protocol could lead to parents of these infants increasing their reliance upon car transportation. Additional car transportation could actually terminate in a net increase in death rates for children younger than sum of two units years. The best solution is to avoid placing the economic costliness of this proposed policy forward parents of traveling children. individual suggestion is to allow parents with children younger than pair years to reserve a seat nearest to them (at no cost) forward planes that are not replete so the children can be placed in a restraint plan This solution would increase the use of child safety restraint schemes in airplanes without diversion to car travel. The goal would be to expand a policy that would increase the use of restraint schemes without changing the parents' travel plans.--K.E.M.

COPYRIGHT 2004 American Academy of Family Physicians

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