Child Passenger Safety Colorado News and Information Tech update 2012
- From: camie wewer <cjwewer@xxxxxxx>
- To: <cjwewer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 13 May 2012 16:42:42 -0600
http://fcs.tamu.edu/safety/passenger_safety/tech_update/april2012.php
Copied below is a tech update from Texas, the link is above. It has some very
helpful information including information about recertification. Please
remember to sign up for CEU update classes as they become available in your
area! Home > Safety > Passenger
Safety > For Certified Technicians > Tech
Update > April 2012Tech Update – April 2012 Inflatable Booster
Seats: Thinking Outside the BoxCPS technicians have first-hand experience in
working with families to meet their travel needs. When it
comes to belt-positioning boosters, they must do one thing
only—position the child so the lap and
shoulder belt fits correctly. They do not function in the same way as a
harnessed restraint because the vehicle
seat belt bears the burden of protection—not the booster itself. We all know
people buy booster seats for several reasons:
easy to use, portable for travel or car pooling, inexpensive, fits
their child, fits their vehicle,
and child likes using the booster.Conventional boosters provide a choice of
backless and high-back design. Each serves a different purpose.
I recently saw an inflatable booster seat that was passed
around a group of technicians, and the comments
varied from “Is it FMVSS 213 approved?” to “I don’t think I would have my
child ride in it.” Innovation is a way of
life. We need to keep an open mind and learn about new products by asking
questions and understanding why it may appeal
to parents and caregivers. Check out the websites for two innovative
products that are currently FMVSS 213 approved, the
BubbleBum (backless) and Go Booster (high back). As techs, we understand what
it means when a product is FMVSS 213 approved. The manufacturer self-certifies
that the car seat meets the requirements of the FMVSS through extensive
testing. We should be concerned with the fit of the lap and of the
shoulder portion of the seat belt. We should also ask, “Is this an option for 3
in a row on the back seat?” Aren’t these questions asked of any booster seat
fit? Additionally, we might ask a manufacturer for test results after
learning more about their product by visiting the websites and viewing any
video clips. Although the data may be proprietary and not completely available,
some techs may find it interesting—and it never hurts to ask for information!
There are opportunities to review blog posts and other social media as well as
reviewing the comparison of boosters through
consumer testing with other boosters. You can read more at:
http://www.iihs.org/research/topics/boosters/.ATVs: Dangerous for KidsAs safety
advocates, we have long known of the dangers to kids who ride all-terrain
vehicles (ATVs). A recent study published
by Neurosurg Focus proved that size is more important than skill or experience
when it comes to young riders. Children are
four to twelve times more likely to be injured riding an ATV than adult
riders.The major injury risks with riding ATVs are: head injuries (cause
of most ATV-related deaths); head
and spinal trauma; abdominal injuries; abrasions, lacerations, and
clavicle and extremity fractures;
and burn injuries from contact with the engine and exhaust system. The authors
concluded that “individuals with light weights and small wingspans, such as
those in the pediatric population, are
under considerable risk of injury when operating an ATV due to lateral,
longitudinal, and vertical operational
instability.”For more information: Safe
Kids USA ATV Policy Statement Children’s
Safety Network Off-Road Vehicles Injury Topic US
Consumer Product Safety Commission ATV
StatementCHOP Unveils New CPS WebsiteLast month, the Children’s Hospital of
Philadelphia (CHOP) announced the launch of its new CPS website,
Car Seat Safety for Kids, replacing the popular Keeping
Kids Safe during Crashes site. The website domain
remains the same at www.chop.edu/carseat.The site brings together the
expertise of CHOP and the best CPS resources available as a “one stop shop” for
parents. CPS technicians will find that the popular “Car Seat Safety by Age”
videos have been updated based on the latest recommendations from the
American Academy of Pediatrics. DVDs of the videos will be available in
English and Spanish later this year. The site also features new content such as
a section for expectant parents, one for parents of premature babies or
babies with special medical conditions, and detailed information and links
to find car seat checks nationwide. Parents, educators, and CPS technicians
can also utilize the “Educational Resources” section containing free
illustrations, images, reports, fact sheets, and podcasts that are available
for download.A joint effort of the Center for Injury Research and Prevention
and the Kohl’s Injury Prevention Program at CHOP, Car Seat Safety for Kids
was made possible with the generous support of Global Automakers and Kohl’s.
Please visit, link to, and share www.chop.edu/carseat with your colleagues and
the parents with whom you work.2011 Scientific Articles: A Year in ReviewIn
case you missed these articles from 2011, here are some highlights. This list
is not comprehensive. A list of example articles appropriate for CEUs (3 for
1 CEU.1 CEU maximum) may be found at
http://cert.safekids.org/ResourcesFAQs/Forms/Recertification.aspx. Click on the
link, “Examples of Scientific Articles.” American Academy of Pediatrics
Technical Report: Child Passenger Safety Pediatrics. Vol. 127 No. 4
April 1, 2011, pp. e1050 -e1066. Available online:
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/127/4/e1050.full. American
Academy of Pediatrics Policy Statement: Child Passenger Safety Pediatrics.
Vol. 127 No. 4 April 2011, pp. 788-793. Available online:
http://aappolicy.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/pediatrics;127/4/788.
Grandparents Driving Grandchildren: An Evaluation of Child Passenger Safety and
Injuries. Pediatrics. Vol. 128 No. 2 August 1, 2011. Available online:
http://www.pediatricsdigest.mobi/content/128/2/289.full. Emergency
Physicians’ Knowledge and Provision of Child Passenger Safety Information.
Academic Emergency Medicine. Volume 18, Issue 2, pages 145–151, February
2011. Available online (abstract only):
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1553-2712.2010.00971.x/abstract.
NHTSA Unveils New “10-Year-Old Child” Crash Test DummyTest dummy will evaluate
growing number of child seats and boosters designed for children weighing more
than 65 poundsThe nation’s automotive safety agency unveiled a new crash test
dummy that will be used to evaluate the growing number of child safety
seats and boosters made for children weighing more than 65 pounds. The National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA’s) “10-year-old child” dummy is
the latest addition to the agency’s family of test dummies and is the
best tool currently available for measuring the risk of injury to a child
using a higher-weight child restraint system in the event of a vehicle
crash.“It’s good news that manufacturers are making more car seats and boosters
than ever before designed to keep older and heavier children safer on our
roadways,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood “As the marketplace
evolves to accommodate changing consumer needs, it’s important that safety
regulators also have the best tools possible for evaluating how well these
products work. The new test dummy breaks new ground for the Department’s crash
test program and is a significant step forward for evaluating child seat
performance.”The 10-year-old child test dummy was developed in concert with new
safety seat requirements updated to keep pace with the latest scientific
research and child restraint system technologies. It will provide
never-before-available information capturing the risk of injuries using
head and knee excursions, as well as chest acceleration. The final rule
issued by NHTSA last month amends the current federal child safety seat
standard to include car seats and boosters specified for children weighing
more than 65 pounds and up to 80 pounds. The expanded standard will
evaluate how well the higher-weight restraint systems manage crash energy and
if the seat’s structure stays intact by incorporating the use of the dummy
for the first time ever in compliance tests. Manufacturers will have two
years to certify their higher-weight car seats and boosters to meet the new
requirements.“Our new dummy is an excellent addition to NHTSA’s extensive child
seat compliance testing program and will enable the agency to gather the
best data yet on the performance of higher-weight child seats,” said David
Strickland, NHTSA Administrator. “Even as we begin to reap the benefits of this
new tool, NHTSA is already looking down the road and has research under
way to further improve the dummy.”The announcement follows more stringent child
safety seat recommendations issued by NHTSA last year encouraging parents and
caregivers to keep children in a car seat with a harness for as long as
possible, up to the height and weight specifications of the seat. The agency’s
updated child seat guidance also recommends that children ride in a booster
seat until they are big enough to fit in a seat belt properly, which is
typically when the child is somewhere between 8–12 years old and about 4
feet 9 inches tall.LATCH Usability StudyInstalling child restraints can
frustrate even the most capable of parents. A system called Lower Anchors and
Tethers for Children is supposed to make things easier by standardizing
attachment hardware, but a new study shows that many automakers aren’t
paying attention to the key factors that make LATCH work. Only 21 of the 98
top-selling 2010–11 model passenger vehicles evaluated have LATCH designs that
are easy to use. This is the main finding of joint research conducted by the
Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and the University of Michigan
Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI). UMTRI researchers reviewed LATCH
hardware and rear seats in cars, minivans, pickups, station wagons, and SUVs.
To measure and assess how child restraints fit in each vehicle, they used a
test fixture and other tools in line with 2009 draft guidelines developed by a
Society of Automotive Engineers working group. They then picked 12
vehicles representing a range of LATCH setups and asked 36 volunteers to
each install three different types of child restraints in three of the
vehicles.Researchers identified three factors associated with correct lower
anchor use: depth, clearance, and force.Depth. Lower anchors should be located
no more than 3/4 inch deep in the seat bight and should be easy
to see. Clearance. Nothing should obstruct access to the anchors. Safety
belt buckles and other hardware plus the foam, cloth or leather
material of the seats themselves shouldn’t get in the way of
attaching child seat connectors. There should be enough room around the anchors
to approach them at an angle, as well as straight-on. This makes
it easier to hook or snap on connectors and also tighten LATCH straps. In
the study, a clearance angle of at least 54 degrees was associated with
easier installation. Force. Parents should be able to install child
restraints using less than 40 pounds of force. Some systems require
lots of effort to properly attach child seat hardware with lower anchors, in
part because they are deep in the seat bight or surrounded by
interfering parts of the vehicle seat.All three factors are related and are
good predictors of how well people are able to correctly install child
restraints. Vehicles meeting the criteria were 19 times as likely to have lower
anchors used correctly by the volunteers compared with vehicles that don’t
meet any of the criteria.One common problem researchers encountered in the lab
is that safety belt buckles, plastic housing, or vehicle seats obscure or
interfere with lower anchors. Another issue is that the anchors are sometimes
buried deep within the back seats, so parents might have to dig around in
the cushions to find them. Lower anchors were visible in just 36 of the 98
study vehicles. Researchers considered the anchors visible if they were easy to
see or could be seen by removing a prominently marked cover.Federal rules
dictate the minimum number of seating positions that must have LATCH, the size
of the lower anchors, and how far apart they can be situated. If the
lower anchors aren’t visible, markers on the seats must indicate their
location. Other design details are left up to automakers. For instance, the
regulations don’t specify anchor depth within the seat bight or limit how
hard someone has to push on a child restraint to connect LATCH. Researchers
found that these factors affect the likelihood that people will install child
restraints correctly.Another finding is that only seven of the 98 vehicles
surveyed have dedicated LATCH anchors in the center, second-row seats, even
though that is the safest place for children to travel. Nine vehicles allow
borrowing of anchors from the outboard seats, and 82 have no center
anchors at all. In the 21 minivans and SUVs with third rows, 11 have no lower
anchors at all in these seats.Volunteer installations. In the study, parents
correctly used the lower anchors 60 percent of the time. Volunteers who
correctly used anchors were more than three times as likely to get a tight fit
as volunteers who didn’t use them the right way. When anchors were misused,
common mistakes included not orienting the connectors properly, attaching
them to the wrong hardware, and not snapping them in all the way. Twisted
straps also counted as an error.Certified child passenger safety technicians
evaluated the installations. They deemed them tight if the restraint didn’t
move more than an inch sideways or back and forth when pulled. All of the
participants currently used child seats in their own vehicles. If they had
questions about how to install the seats in the study, they could consult
owners’ manuals but received no other assistance.Tethers aren’t optional.
Volunteers used top tethers just 48 percent of the time with forward-facing
child restraints. When tethers were used, 54 percent of the installations
were incorrect. Leaving too much slack in the strap was a common error.
Another was attaching tethers to the wrong hardware.Overall, parents and
caregivers correctly installed seats with lower anchors and top tethers to get
a tight, secure fit at the right angle in just 13 percent of the cases.“With
tethers, the main issue is use, not usability,” says Kathy Klinich, assistant
research scientist at UMTRI and the study’s lead author. “Many parents don’t
realize they are supposed to use the tether.”Previous studies have shown that
many people neglect to use tethers. A 2010 Institute survey found tethers in
use 43 percent of the time, about the same as in the mid-1970s.“Tethers should
be used with all forward-facing child restraints, even if parents opt to secure
seats with safety belts instead of lower anchors,” Klinich says. “We need to
better educate people about tether use.”Making LATCH easier to use might
encourage more parents to use child restraints and install them correctly,
McCartt says. In 2010, 29 percent of children 1–3 years old and 12 percent of
infants younger than 1 who died in crashes were riding unrestrained.
Those numbers mark a sharp improvement over 1985, when 71 percent of children
ages 1–3 and 35 percent of infants killed in crashes were unrestrained.On-line
CEU Opportunity Provided by: The Texas AgriLife Extension Service Passenger
Safety Project The Texas AgriLife Extension Service Passenger Safety Project is
offering three on-line tech update
courses that will provide 2 CEUs each. It is the on-line version of
the Tech Update
Workshop offered by Passenger Safety on February 2, 2011, in Bryan and across
the state via
video conferencing. The course, titled Tech Update 2011, Parts 1–3, is
available at:
http://extensiononline.tamu.edu/courses/volunteers.php.
Note that the maximum CEUs allowed in the
on-line education category is five.Other On-line CEU OpportunitiesProvided by:
Safe Kids Worldwide and NHTSA Location:
http://www.safekidswebinars.org/ Currently available:
Vehicle Safety Part 1: Federal Regulations, Vehicle Safety Part 2: Consumer
Testing, School
Buses, A Tech’ s
Guide to Recalls, and Transporting Children in
Vehicles Other Than Cars. Technicians will
register, log in, finish the webinar,
and print a certificate of completion. This webinar
requires participants to gather
information from other sites (links provided) to have a quality
learning experience.
Again, note that the maximum CEUs allowed in the on-line education category is
five. Re-Certification Reminder You may
re-certify up to four months before your certification expiration date. Avoid
problems – don’t delay! Basic
re-certification requirements and deadlines: Five seat checks approved by a
certified instructor (you may use the technician proxy
option). You can do the checks at any time during your
certification cycle as long as they are entered on-line
and a certified instructor approves them before your
re-certification date. Community education (choose one):
Participation in at least one two-hour checkup event with
at least one other CPS technician using any
standardized checklist to provide documentation, if
needed. Provide at least four hours of community education. Examples include
making presentations to parents,
educators, kids, organizations (such as PTAs or law
enforcement), or other stakeholders who are not technicians. A minimum of six
hours of CPS technical continuing education units earned and reported
during a current two-year certification cycle.
You cannot carry over CEUs from one
period to the next, even if you have accumulated more CEUs than
are required. You can record CEUs
any time during your certification cycle, but they must fit into one of the
five
approved categories and meet content requirements.Register and pay the
re-certification fee before your certification expiration date. To get to the
payment screen, you must have: Completed all five seat checks (entered and
CPSTI approved). Entered at least six CEUs. Entered your community event
information. Once all three are done, you will see a “Click Here to Continue”
button that will take you to the payment
screens. Once your registration is complete, your re-certification will be
processed in two to four days.Remember to Update Your On-line Profile at the
Safe Kids WebsiteSafe Kids Certification Website – http://cert.safekids.org
Techs can log in to update their profile and enter re-certification
information. Please remember to change your
bookmark to reflect this new address.Sources: CPS Express October–December 2011
Last updated: 4 May, 2012Educational programs of the Texas
AgriLife Extension Service are open to all people without regard to race,
color, sex, disability, religion, age, or national origin.
Camie Wewer-Program Coordinator *CPS Technician/Instructor*Special Needs
CPSNourish @ North Suburban Medical Center * Baby On The Go * Child Passenger
Safety Assistance and Education303 489 4819 Cell 303 453 2273 NSMC
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