Air Bags Risky For Young Teens

Do children need to wait until they're 15 years old to be protected by a front-seat air bag in the event of a crash?

The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration recommends that children 12 years old and younger "should always ride properly restrained in a rear seat." Now, a new study suggests that air bags protection may start at age 15.

"Children up to 14 years of age may be at risk for serious preventable injury when seated in front of a passenger air bag, and children 15 to 18 years of age seem to experience protective effects of air bag presence and deployment," say Craig Newgard, MD, MPH, and colleagues in June's issue of Pediatrics.

About Air Bags

Air bags have saved many lives. However, because they must deploy very quickly, their force may cause injuries. Those injuries are usually "very minor abrasions or burns," says the web site of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

Serious or even fatal injuries can occur when someone is very close to or in direct contact with an air bag module when the air bag deploys, says the NHTSA. The NHTSA recommends that drivers leave at least 10 inches from their breastbone to the center of the steering wheel.

Newgard and colleagues say a 1995 NHTSA news release contained a strong warning that air bags may pose significant risks of injury and death for children, and that the NHTSA has required all new passenger vehicles to carry warning labels with the 12-and-under guideline starting in 1997.

Study's Findings

Newgard's study is based on 3,790 crash survivors aged 1 month to 18 years. The crashes occurred over an eight-year period; serious injuries for children riding in the front passenger seat were noted.

Very few children (1.6%, or 60 kids) suffered serious injuries in the crashes. "Children 0 to 14 years of age involved in frontal collisions seemed to be at increased risk of serious injury from air bag presence and deployment," says the study.

"Among children 15 to 18 years of age involved in frontal collisions, there was a protective effect on injury from both air bag presence and deployment," says the study. "These findings persisted in analyses involving all collision types."

Age was the only cutoff point the researchers identified, though they also considered height and weight and adjusted for "important crash factors." Newgard works at Oregon Health and Science University's Center for Policy and Research in Emergency Medicine.

NHTSA's Response

Rae Terry, NHTSA spokesman, tells WebMD that he hasn't seen the study, but the recommendation that children age 12 and under "is still a good recommendation."

"Everything we've seen from the real world indicates that 12 and under is a reasonable recommendation," he says. If parents choose to keep their kids in the back until age 15, they're free to do so. "There is certainly nothing wrong with parents erring on the side of caution," says Terry.

By Miranda Hitti
Reviewed by Brunilda Nazario, MD
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