Buckle up those kids:
By Linda Rosen
No exceptions,
no excusesDURING the week of Nov. 23-29, Hawaii's Keiki Injury Prevention Coalition/Safe Kids Hawaii (KIPC) and over 1,000 other organizations are giving our endorsement for enforcement to the more than 5,000 law enforcement agencies across the nation conducting Operation ABC Mobilization: America Buckles Up Children.
It is the largest-ever coordinated effort by law enforcement to protect children, and we're proud to be a part of it. KIPC is a coalition of public and private organizations, agencies and community groups committed to injury prevention for Hawaii's children and youth.
Operation ABC Mobilization is the kind of broad community-based movement our nation needs to save children from the leading cause of death: traffic crashes.
While officers and safety advocates have been educating drivers about the benefits of child safety seats and seat belts for years, the Operation ABC Mobilization takes the next necessary step. It is a serious crackdown on drivers who place child passengers at deadly risk by leaving them unrestrained.
Under Operation ABC Mobilization, the Hawaii Department of Transportation is spearheading a publicity campaign in support of the stepped-up police enforcement efforts to be occurring throughout the state and nation.
Police officers in each county are being encouraged to make an extra effort to watch for vehicles with unrestrained children, and to cite the drivers of these vehicles.
Many drivers just don't believe they'll be in a crash, so they don't put on their own seat belts or make sure that their children are restrained.
The possibility of being stopped and ticketed is what it takes for many drivers to protect children by always buckling them up. Hawaii's added mandatory classroom attendance penalty intends to add to that incentive.
Although only law enforcement officers can write tickets, we stand firmly behind the life-saving message each ticket delivers. Thanks to the support of key legislators and coalition members, Hawaii passed the first law in the nation that mandates all violators of the child car seat law to pay for and attend a car safety seat class.
We know Operation ABC Mobilization works. When we support our nation's law enforcement, we help save lives.
Every day, an average of seven children ages 14 and younger die, and 908 are injured, in motor vehicle-related crashes.
Child safety seats, when properly installed, reduce the risk of death by 69 percent for infants and 47 percent for toddlers.
AS an emergency room physician and a parent, I am personally concerned about children and adults who are not protected by our laws.
Hawaii's occupant protection law allows anyone above the age of four to ride unbuckled in the back seat -- often where we let our keiki ride. In fact, ejection from a vehicle, regardless of seat positioning, is the leading cause of death to children in motor vehicle crashes. Seat belts dramatically reduce this risk.
The DOT estimates that about 65 percent of children under the age of 4 on Hawaii's roads are not buckled up.
KIPC and KIPC chapters on the Big island, Kauai and Maui, along with the Hawaii Department of Health Injury Prevention and Control Program, are working to address Hawaii's low child car seat usage rate through legislation, community child passenger safety training and car-seat check-ups, and increased public awareness about the $25 state tax credit available on any car-seat purchased.
If you are buying a child car seat this holiday season, don't forget to save the receipt to use when filing for the tax credit, and remember to take the extra time to buckle up yourself and your keiki.
Linda Rosen, M.D., is an emergency room physician
at Kapiolani Medical Center for Women and Children and chairwoman
of Keiki Injury Prevention Coalition.