Drivers with a Child Passenger are more at Risk for Injury than their child Passenger Due Driver not Wearing Seatbelt

Child and Driver safety is a public health concern among minority and low income communities. Research shows that motor vehicle accidents are the leading cause of death among children in the United States. Although it is suggested that proper restraints have been shown to reduce the number of fatalities in the event of an accident, there is still a significant number of adults from minority and low income communities who do not properly retrain their children and, or do not restrain themselves in a vehicle. Based on a previous Children Are Restrained for Enhanced Safety (C.A.R.E.S.) study/observations it was noted that parent were securing their children passengers however, drivers/parent was observed to not wearing seatbelts. As a follow-up, a pilot study (survey) was conducted to determine why there was an inconsistency of behavior for adults and their willingness to put themselves at increase risk of injury but not their children passengers. The survey was distributed to minority and low income communities. From the drivers surveyed fourteen percent reported they did not wear seat belts all the time during the last 30 days while eight percent were not aware that Tennessee State Law requires mandatory safety belt utilization. Additionally, twenty two percent of drivers did not restrain themselves all the time which is a public health concern. Therefore some educational/prevention intervention is needed to target this population of minority and low income drivers to address the need for driver safety seat belt usage to decrease the risk of injury.