Buckling up the Babies

More Iowa motorists are securing their kids in carseats now than ever before, according to a statewide University of Iowa survey. John Lundell, deputy director of the U-of-I Injury Prevention Research Center, says 79.2% of children were buckled in properly. During all of 2000, 8 children under age six were killed on Iowa’s roads. So far the first eight months of 2001, five children under age six died in car crashes on Iowa roads, according to statistics from the Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau of the Iowa Department of Public Safety. Lundell says rural Iowans tended to ignore the safety rules more frequently for their children. Lundell says he was also encouraged by the fact 85% of Iowa children were seen by the surveyers riding in the BACK seats, where it is safest for them to ride. He says eight years ago, that number was only 50%.