Panel to Study Car Seat Safety: Because...

Panel to Study Car Seat Safety: Because of widespread misuse of child safety seats in cars, federal officials this week announced the formation of a committee to find ways the seats can be made easier to install and use.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administrator Ricardo Martinez said his office has had numerous complaints of safety seats being hard to install and use. “Routine safety equipment--something that is required by law in all 50 states, something that gives kids their best chance of surviving a crash--should be unequivocally easy to install and convenient to use,” he said.

The agency said that of the 615 child passengers who died in 1993, 362 were unrestrained and that more than half could have been saved if they had been in a correctly used child safety seat. The advisory panel, which will include safety seat manufacturers, a pediatrician and parents, is to come up with recommendations by June 1.