KEY POINTS:
Child health experts are demanding a law change that would see youngsters strapped into rear booster seats until they reach the age of 12, or 148cm in height.
Research by Starship hospital paediatricians Gabrielle Nuthall and Elizabeth Segedin shows New Zealand has the worst record in the developed world for child passenger deaths.
About 20 Kiwi kids die in motor vehicle crashes each year - almost a quarter of all childhood deaths.
Nuthall said: "Doing this job, I see a lot of children die and it can be stressful, sad and soul-destroying at times.
Present legislation means children up to the age of five need to sit in a booster seat, but Nuthall and Segedin said this policy was not working.
They said seatbelts were designed for adults and don't fit smaller-built children properly, sitting across the stomach and beside the neck, when they sit in an ordinary car seat.
"Children don't have a pelvis, so the lap belt usually sits over the tummy, and with no bones to protect them they can rip open their liver and spleen and do other damage," Nuthall said.
"Children's heads are much bigger than their body, so their head turns into a missile when they are little and tries to leave their body and move forward, which is why children are at high risk of spinal cord and brain injuries."
America, Britain and Canada are among the countries to raise the age children must remain in booster seats, and Safekids is backing calls for New Zealand to follow suit. Director Ann Weaver said its research showed booster seats were needed for every four- and five-year-old, 90 per cent of six- to eight-year-olds, half of nine- and 10-year-olds, and 10 per cent of 11- and 12-year-olds.
Segedin and Nuthall said crashes killed twice as many children as abuse but the issue didn't get the same focus.
"There is a lot of media and Government attention and Government money that goes into trying to prevent child abuse, as it should," Nuthall said.
"But when you look at the magnitude of the problem, we get almost double the number of children from motor vehicle accidents in the intensive care unit, and the majority of them are not correctly restrained.
"We know that because Dr Segedin and I go and ask the families because it's not recorded."
The doctors put their findings to the Transport Ministry last March but are still waiting for an official response.
Nuthall said officials at the meeting agreed change was needed but she said the Government was frightened of upsetting voters.
Transport Safety Minister Harry Duynhoven said the doctors' presentation made a lot of sense but acknowledged other countries were leading the way on reform.
"It's a definite leap from where we are now to where we want to be. It would take a lot of public convincing."
He said his officials had consulted Governments overseas and researched the cost of a law change to Kiwi families at $250 a child. "I support the doctors but it's too ambitious a target. Let's move the issue in the right direction."
YOUR VIEWS ON BOOSTER SEATS
Parents spoken to by the Herald on Sunday had mixed view on calls to keep kids in booster seats longer. All agreed more should be done to protect their children, but some were worried if a law change could be enforced.
Clay Sesto, a father of three boys, agreed rules about booster seats could be revised for children aged nine to 12.
Sesto said the way adult seatbelts sat on small children meant he had concerns about kids being "throttled" in an accident. But he questioned how such a policy could be enforced, because children could vary in height regardless of age.
Debbie Upson was against forcing 12-year-olds into booster seats. "Once they get to that age I think they are quite safe in a normal car seat. It just wouldn't be practical, especially for a family with three or four kids under 12. How could they fit in all the booster seats?" She said her two children were not allowed to sit in the front seat until their eighth birthday.
She said many parents would not take kindly to being told their older children needed booster seats. "I think you would find a lot of parents wouldn't bother. I just don't think it would stand up." Michelle Coursey
