Vehicle Safety

In 2022, the U.S. Department of Transportation released the National Roadway Safety Strategy to address the crisis of injuries and deaths on the roadways.¹ The leading cause of motor vehicle injuries and fatalities is human behavior—particularly, speeding, distracted driving (e.g., phone use), and driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol.² The risk of severe injuries and fatalities in motor vehicle crashes can be greatly reduced by ensuring that children are correctly secured in car seats, booster seats or seat belts that are appropriate for their age and size. For example, compared to using seat belts alone, car seats can reduce the risk for injury in a crash by 71% to 82% for children, with age appropriate prevention methods showing similar results.² From 2021 to 2023, Cook Children’s Medical Centers in Fort Worth and Prosper treated 2,366 non-fatal injuries related to motor vehicle crashes and 611 injuries related to ATV or off-road vehicle injuries.³

Community Insights

In the eight-county primary service area—Collin, Denton, Grayson, Hood, Johnson, Parker, Tarrant and Wise counties, approximately 3 in 4 children (about 200,150) between the ages of 1 and 4 always ride in a car seat and nearly 1 in 2 (188,600) children between the ages 5 and 11 always ride in a car seat or booster seat.⁴ With a decrease in children using a car or booster seat between the ages of 5 to 11, it is important for caregivers to be aware of the appropriate child restraint in a booster seat until a child can safely transition to a seat belt.

Vehicle safety program

Vehicle Safety

Our initiative is designed to help reduce the number injuries we see every year among children through child passenger safety education

Vehicle Safety

References

¹U.S. Department of Transportation. National Roadway Safety Strategy. Accessed August 2024. https://www.transportation.gov/NRSS

²Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Preventing child passenger injury. Accessed August 2024. https://www.cdc.gov/child-passenger-safety/prevention/index.html

³Cook Children’s Health Care System, Health Care Analytics. 2024. Accessed September 2024.

⁴Cook Children's Medical Center, Trauma Center, Physician Network, Case Management Services, Meditech Data Repository, and Epic Data Repository.