Discuss how motor vehicle use relates to childhood injuries. What are some ways to minimize unintentional injuries during automobile travel?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Answer: Unintentional injuries are the leading cause of childhood mortality in industrialized nations. Motor vehicle collisions are by far the most frequent source of injury. They rank as the second leading U.S. cause of death from birth to age 5 and as the leading cause of death among school-age children and adolescents.
Communities can help by modifying their physical environments. Providing inexpensive and widely available public transportation can reduce the amount of time that children spend in cars. And media campaigns can inform parents and children about safety issues. Parents can and should use an age-appropriate, properly installed car safety seat or booster seat up to age 8 or until the child is 4 feet 9 inches tall, and strap the child in correctly every time. Children should always ride in the back seat because passenger-side air bags in the front seat deploy so forcefully that they can cause injury or death to a child. Research confirms that young children properly restrained in car safety seats have an 80 percent reduced risk of fatal injury. Finally, children should never be left alone in a car, even on a cool sunny day. A child's core body temperature increases 3 to 5 times faster than an adult's, with the risk of permanent injury or death.