IRVINE : Danger to Children in Truck Beds Cited

Dogs that ride in the back of pickup trucks receive more stringent protection under California law than children who ride in the back of trucks, a UC Irvine associate professor said Tuesday.

“Putting a child in the back of a pickup truck is like putting a child in the middle of a busy street, because the chances of a child being ejected and ending up in the street are very great,” said Phyllis F. Agran, an associate professor of pediatrics whose research was published in the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Assn.

Agran’s article, “Pediatric Injuries in the Back of Pickup Trucks,” studied accidents involving 290 Orange County children, ranging from infants to 14-year-olds, who were ejected from the back of pickup trucks.

The study, whose authors include UCI researchers Diane G. Winn and Dawn N. Castillo, concluded that children who rode in the back of trucks sustained more severe injuries and were more frequently injured and ejected than those who rode in the cab--even in the absence of a collision.

For instance, 9% of 201 children who rode in the cab were ejected even when the truck was not involved in a collision, but 24% of 89 children who rode in the truck bed were ejected even when there was no collision, Agran’s study showed.

“Any kind of turn, swerve, sudden stop can result in a child being ejected,” she said.”

Agran noted that under California law, dogs must be leashed or otherwise restrained when riding in the back of a truck. Also, she pointed out, children under the age of 12 cannot travel in a truck bed unless they are restrained or in an enclosed space.

“But all that is null and void if a parent is traveling in the back with the child,” Agran said.

Dogs, however, must be restrained, even in the presence of an adult, so the law is more stringent for dogs, she said.