When children under the age of 2 are not required to be restrained for their own safety, the safety of other passengers also becomes an issue.Īdditionally, the NTSB has highlighted several occurrences where crew, passengers and children have sustained injury during unexpected moderate-to-severe turbulence and described how lap-held infants and children would have likely survived the occurrences or suffered less severe injury had they been properly restrained. The NTSB has also put forward the argument that, although passengers are required to securely stow all carry-on baggage during takeoff and landing because of the potential risk of injury to other passengers in the event of an unexpected hazardous event, passengers continue to be permitted to hold a child of equal size and weight in their lap. All of the children under 2 years old were restrained in a CRS and sustained no injuries in the accidents. In total, 26 children sustained fatal injuries, 2 sustained serious injuries, 5 sustained minor injuries, and 6 sustained no injuries. During 2011, the NTSB collected data on 19 GA accidents and incidents, which included 39 children who were 14 years old and younger. The NTSB declared 2011 the Year of the Child and initiated a study on children involved in general aviation (GA) accidents and incidents. The NTSB’s Child and Youth Transportation Safety Initiative promotes child occupant safety in all modes of transportation with a focus on educating parents and caregivers about ways to keep children safe when travelling. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has issued several recommendations on the subject of the mandatory use of CRS for infant passengers, the appropriate use of safety harnesses for children, and educating the public on the risks associated with not using a CRS for children under the age of 2. A comprehensive review of the scientific literature on child restraint systems (CRS) in aviation, specifically that addressing the protection from injuries in survivable aviation occurrences for children under 2 years old, as well as accident reports, concluded that in order to provide safety equivalent to that of adult passengers, infants “should be seated in a suitable CRS on a seat of their own.” The report authors further conclude that, “the transport of lap-held infants secured with or without a loop belt does not provide any protection to the infant.” Previous recommendations for child restraint systems National Transportation Safety Board

In addition, the adult dummy folded over the infant dummy trapping and crushing it in the process.

Canada and the United States do not allow the supplementary loop belt because research has shown that infants so restrained fare worse than unrestrained infants because of the adult’s forward movement during severe impact and the concentrated forces of the supplementary loop belt on the infant’s abdominal region.Ī 2004 Australian study found that, although the infant anthropomorphic dummy attached with a supplementary loop belt was restrained during dynamic testing, it underwent significant forward excursion resulting in severe impact of the infant dummy’s head with the forward seatback. Many jurisdictions (e.g., European Union, Australia, New Zealand) permit, or even require, lap-held infants to be restrained with a supplementary or a belly loop belt, which attaches to the adult’s seatbelt and goes around the infant’s abdomen.

International policies regarding the use of child restraint systems

Child restraint systems delaware