NHTSA’s Acting Administrator Ann Carlson

Child Passenger Safety Week is emphasizing the importance of properly securing children in car seats. Motor vehicle crashes are a leading cause of death for children, and data from 2021 shows that on average, three children are killed and 455 are injured every day in traffic crashes. Correctly installed car seats can significantly reduce the risk of fatality for infants and toddlers. It's crucial for children under 13 to use a child safety seat or sit in the back seat. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is providing certified technicians who can check if car seats are installed correctly at fire departments and police stations. Parents can find more information on the NHTSA website, including guidance on choosing the right car seat. It's important to ensure that car seats are properly installed, as about half of them are incorrectly installed, compromising their effectiveness. This is Child Passenger Safety Week, and it's something we should really take seriously every week of the year, but it does get some extra focus this particular week every year. You know, motor vehicle crashes continue to be a leading cause of death for children. Updated annual data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration details just how dangerous it is for parents to secure their kids in improperly installed car seats. An average of three kids, 14 and younger, killed an estimated 455 children injured every single day, and that is according to data from traffic crashes in 2021. So lots to share this morning, and my special guest who's joining me here at the RNJ Morning Program is with the – she is the acting administrator of the NHTSA, and it's great to have Ann Carlson joining me this morning here at the RNJ Morning Program. Hi, Ann. It's Bert, WRNJ Radio in New Jersey. How are you this morning? I'm good, Bert. How are you doing? I'm doing good. It's rainy, so we're slowing down on the roads a little bit, and we're giving that a little bit of an extra safety push, which I think is an important thing. But I think this week just giving some extra reminders about child passenger safety and just how critical that is is a great thing to be doing this morning. Talk about, if you could, some of the findings of this latest data. I did share a little bit of the information, but did you have some other key information that you wanted to share today? I do. I have a few things to say. In 2021 in New York, 28 children were killed in traffic crashes. In New Jersey, it was 16. And one of the best ways you can keep your child safe, especially a child under the age of 13, is to use a child safety seat or to, if it's an older child who no longer fits in a seat, to make sure they sit in the back seat. So just to give you some more statistics, our data shows that a correctly installed car seat can reduce the risk of fatality for infants by a whopping 71 percent. And for toddlers, that's 54 percent. Interesting. I mean, I think it seems like it's a little bit of an easier battle when you're doing a younger child and getting them safely secured in a car seat. Sometimes, how do you have that conversation, Ann, with a teenager? Because when I was 13, I thought I knew everything. I was ready to take the world over. And the last thing somebody is going to tell me what to do is where to sit in a car. How do you have that conversation and impress upon maybe a young teenager about their safety and how important that is? Well, one thing to know is that you're a lot safer in the back seat up until the age of 13 because your skeleton hasn't fully formed in the right way. And another thing to know is that wearing a seatbelt is one of the most effective ways you can keep yourself safe. Overall, about 42,000 people are killed on our nation's highways and roadways every year. Half of those are people who are not wearing their seatbelt. Well, let's get back to kids because that's our focus this week for National Child Passenger Safety Week. Another issue that we have is that a lot of folks don't install car seats properly. And so one of the things we're doing this week is that around the country at fire departments, at police stations, we are providing certified technicians who will check to see if your child's car seat is installed correctly. And if you want to know where to go, you can go to our website. That's NHTSA.gov slash the right seat. And there's all kinds of information not only about where you can get your car seat checked out but also about the appropriate car seat to use depending upon your child's age, weight, and height. Good. And thanks in advance to any of the municipalities here in Northwest Jersey who are taking part in this very important initiative. It's certainly much appreciated. And also something, Anne, that you could tell maybe for a 13- or 12-year-old about the back seat. Like, hey, someday when you're a rock star, you're going to want to get used to riding in the back of a car. So let me hold open the door for you. And here you go. Make yourself comfortable, right? Maybe that's a way to get a kid. You can pretend it's a limousine. Exactly. Exactly. Play upon the ego a little bit. Special guest this morning here at the RNJ Morning Program, we have the Acting Administrator for NHTSA, Anne Carlson, is with us here, sharing some information about Child Passenger Safety Week, which is underway. Any simple tips for parents, Anne, when it comes to choosing the right car seat and getting that installation corrected? Are there a couple things that parents should look for when doing this? Yes, there are a few things. One is, as long as you can keep your young child in a rear-facing seat, that's the safest thing you can do. When your child gets old enough for a booster, one of the things we like to say is people often ask, how long does my child have to be in a car seat? We want to flip that question, and the question really should be, how long can I keep my child in a car seat? Because we know they provide a lot of safety benefits. Again, just to repeat about more information about car seats, if you're looking for the right seat, you can go to NHTSA.gov slash the right seat, and there's all kinds of information about the right seat for your child, the right seat for your child's age, and all sorts of information. Also, sometimes car seats get recalled because they have problems, just like vehicles get recalled, and our website provides information about recalls of child seats. That's very important information to have available as well. It is 2023 Child Passenger Safety Week. Of course, the safety of our children is something that we take very seriously 52 weeks a year, but we're just giving it some extra attention this week, courtesy of our friends at NHTSA with some important information. Again, we can get some hands-on education there, and also from a certified child passenger safety technician and by visiting that website that you had just given us. Exactly, or you could check with your city or county to see where they're offering this free service. Again, a lot of police stations, a lot of fire stations where you can go have your car seat checked out to make sure it's properly installed. You know, a lot of people think they're properly installed, but it turns out about half of them are incorrectly installed, and if they're not installed correctly, they're not as safe. Yeah, yeah, I'm not surprised. Best to have somebody look at it that knows what's the right way and wrong way and make sure that that's taken care of the correct way. So listeners, you know, Sussex, Morris, Warren, Hunterdon, counties of northwest Jersey, see who's doing these very special safety checks and make sure that everything is installed there correctly. Ann Carlson, the NHTSA Acting Administrator, thank you for the time this morning, and let's make this Child Passenger Safety Week the safest one we've ever had. So thank you so much for the time this morning. Thank you, Bert, and that's a great message to leave with.