Use of restraint devices to prevent collision injuries and deaths among welfare-supported children

Evidence that death and injury rates for young children involved in automobile collisions could be reduced if children were restrained prompted the State of Tennessee to pass the nation's first child passenger law, a law that became effective in January 1978. Although similar laws have now been enacted throughout the United States, usually restraint devices are not provided to low-income groups who may have difficulty affording them. Few studies have examined the use of such devices by welfare recipients. A total of 56 black women, receiving Medicaid and residing in inner city Memphis, were interviewed about their use of passenger restraints during automobile travel for their children ages 0-3 years. About two-thirds of the mothers interviewed said they rarely or never used child passenger restraint devices when transporting their child. Children age 3 years were significantly less likely to be transported in child restraint devices than younger children. Women who had received welfare payments for 3 years or more or who made fewer than one automobile trip a week with their child were significantly less likely to use child passenger restraints. These results suggest that, in spite of child passenger laws, automobile restraint devices are not used for a high percentage of children ages 0-3 years receiving medical care under State and Federal Medicaid programs. Since treatment costs are paid under these programs when children are injured in collisions, program administrators may have strong incentives to increase the proportion of these children being restrained while traveling in motor vehicles.