The Evaluation of Child Safety Seat Misuse and Driver Training to Increase Correct Use in a Local Community

Many researchers have shown that child safety seats are being misused 80 to 85% of the time. In the present study, child safety seat checks were conducted at two local daycare facilities, in which child safety seats were checked for misuse and drivers (at one site) received hands-on training from certified technicians. Hands-on training, for the purposes of this study, was defined as showing drivers mistakes in their seat installations, then having the drivers re-install the seats correctly with coaching by the technicians. For the first phase of checks, there were 67 drivers who participated (22 from the trained Site I, 45 from Site 2). A second phase of child safety seat checks was conducted one month later to determine if correct use was maintained from the first phase after receiving hands-on training. Participation during the second phase dropped to 26 drivers (5 from Site I, 21 from Site 2), which limited tests of hands-on training effects. There was no difference between driver groups at the follow-up checks at Time 2. There was evidence, however, of increased correct use from the first phase to second phase, indicating that the child safety seat checks impacted drivers in a positive way regardless of group condition. Additional analyses, using the frequency of moving seats and number of children under 16 years of age as predictors of misuse, were not significant. Finally, this study found further evidence of high misuse rates as have other studies. Some of the common problems included the safety seat being loose in the vehicle, the children not secure enough in their seat, and harness straps being twisted or torn.