Children Ride in Front Seats Despite Dangers from Air Bags, Study Concludes

A significant number of children ages 7 through 12 are riding up front in vehicles with passenger-side air bags, putting them at added risk in the event of a crash, according to a study by researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health.

In the study, researchers looked at 503 cars and light trucks that carried at least one child under the age of 13. The vehicles were stopped at restaurants, rest stops and other points in five New England states.

Nearly a quarter of the cars and trucks with children had at least one child in the front seat, according to the researchers, writing in this month’s edition of the journal Pediatrics.

More children were observed in the front seat in vehicles without air bags than in vehicles with them--suggesting that some parents have gotten the message about the potential danger of those air bags to young children.

Yet vehicles with children from 7 to 12 years old were three times as likely as those with younger children to have a child in the front seat. That was true even when seats were available in the back; the researchers found that 91% of the time when a child was sitting up front, a seat in the rear was open.

Studies by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and numerous press reports have warned of the danger to youngsters from the high impact when air bags suddenly inflate.

Safety experts stress that children should be moved to the rear seats of cars and trucks with passenger-side air bags. But they have also cautioned parents to put children in the rear even in vehicles without these features because it is generally safer for the child. That second message has received less attention.

Eve Wittenberg, lead author of the study, said the research suggests that public safety messages about the danger of putting young children, especially babies, near air bags has influenced parents’ actions.

“But the older children are less likely to be seated in the rear,” she said. “What’s not getting across is that these older kids are also at risk.”

Safety experts have found, she added, that the best position for all children is in the rear seats because they are farther from the forces of a frontal crash, which is generally the most dangerous type of accident.