The Problem with Safety Belts on Children

There are two main problems:

The vehicle seat is too big

• The shoulder belt is usually anchored so high up in the vehicle (even with adjustable shoulder belt anchors in many newer vehicles) that instead of crossing the center of the child’s chest and resting between the neck and the shoulder, it crosses only a small part of the chest and rests against the neck.

• The vehicle seat is too deep for most kids to be able to sit comfortably without slouching – as their thigh bones (femurs) are too short. Slouching worsens the already poor belt fit, by placing the lap belt further up on the abdomen and moving the shoulder belt further off the chest and onto the neck. By creating a big gap between the child’s back and the back of the vehicle seat, slouching introduces a large amount of slack in the safety belt, which can allow a child’s head and body to move dangerously far forward in a crash.

The child's body is too small and underdeveloped

• A child’s pelvis (hip bones) is relatively small and cartilaginous and lacks the prominent anterior superior iliac spines of an adult’s. This small and underdeveloped pelvis is often unable to prevent the lap belt from riding up into the abdomen. The lap belt may start out in the proper position but moves up into the abdomen during the crash, leading to a pattern of injuries to the abdominal organs and lower spinal cord known as “seat belt syndrome.”

• This diagram (below) shows how a safety belt should fit (green belt) and how it typically fits on a 4-8 year old child (orange belt). Note the orange belt around the child’s abdomen--it's easy to see how the spinal cord is in danger as the belt tightens against the soft abdomen and pushes on the spinal cord.