Increasing child safety-seat use and proper use among toddlers. Evaluation of an enforcement and education program

Effective enforcement programs to promote use and proper use of child safety seats can be successfully implemented. This paper describes the evaluation of a combined occupant-restraint enforcement program plus a public-information and -education program conducted in two test sites and one comparison site; all three are suburban communities of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The program was successful in increasing toddler use of child seats from a baseline of 71.8% and 60.9% to 76.8% and 71.4%, respectively, and in increasing proper use of seats from a baseline of 67% and 57.5% to 72.8% and 69.3%, respectively, in the two test communities. This paper details program and evaluation activities, suggests future directions for improving occupant restraint programs, and describes research techniques for better understanding the effects of enforcement and education on child safety-seat use and proper use.