[Value of the restraint systems for security of children under 10 years in motor vehicles]

On the basis of two surveys, the authors study the current status of children's restraint in cars, its consequences on the occurrence of accidental injuries and the ways and means of improving safety. The first survey conducted the long 1988 Whit Sunday week-end by the National police, has reviewed 800 accidental injuries, 9% of which concerning 134 children: 23 children only were restrained, and the comparison with the others allows to estimate the value of the protection insured by various systems of child restraint. The second survey, performed with 277 children of the kindergartens of the Vosges Department, has investigated how they travel in their parents' car: 10.1% report that they are always restrained. An educational campaign has somewhat improved the situation; however, due to the lack of support by the parents, it quickly deteriorated. A specific effort is to be done, in France, as it has been in other countries, where pediatricians are cooperating with policymakers in order to improve children's safety in cars.