To Ada Marin, MD, there is simply no excuse for not properly restraining children in seat belts and car safety seats.
"Every day, I see people letting their children ride in the front seat of the car. Or they don't restrain them," Dr. Marin, of San Diego, says. "Most of the injuries to these kids could be prevented if people just restrained their children properly in the back seat."
Dr. Marin is one of eight AAFP members who participated as spokespersons in a new seat belt and air bag safety campaign that began Labor Day weekend.
In press conferences and conference calls across the country, family physicians stressed the importance of air bags, safety belts, and having children ride in the back of the car, properly restrained. Trucks with the program slogan "Air Bag Safety/Everyone Buckled/Kids in Back" traveled the nation's busiest highways.
The AAFP has endorsed the two-year educational effort, the National Automotive Occupant Protection Campaign.
Dr. Marin says family physicians' role in the campaign is crucial. "We need to be aware that 300 children's lives could be saved each year just by buckling seat belts," she says.
"We see so many families that we are in a perfect position to get this preventive message out," Dr. Marin says. "We need to talk about this at every encounter with a child and his or her parents, especially during well-child visits; and yes, even with managed care's time constraints."
Other events planned for the campaign include additional public education events and the upgrading and enforcing of safety belt and child safety seat laws. If you'd like more information, contact Janet Dewey, the campaign's executive director, at (202) 293-2270.
FP Report, October 1996
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