Chuck Hurley: Report shows fewer child deaths from air bags

Chuck Hurley is the executive director of the National Air Bag and Seat Belt Safety Campaign.

CNN: Thank you for joining us today, Chuck Hurley, and welcome.

HURLEY: Hi, nice to be with you.

CNN: What does the air bag and seat belt safety report reveal?

HURLEY: There's been remarkable progress in the rate of child deaths from air bags, a reduction of 90.3 percent from 1996 to date. But still, nine kids were killed last year by airbags, which is nine too many.

CHAT PARTICIPANT: What was the reduction due to?

HURLEY: Really, three things. The first was public understanding of airbag safety that came at a high price. The media coverage five years ago, with 26 child fatalities, with 22 million passenger bag equipped vehicles was instrumental. The media attention was extraordinary. So, certainly a number of efforts, including that of the Council's airbag and seatbelt campaign, was a strong public education effort. Second, improved airbags. Designs are continually improving, but most benefits will be in the future, since new cars tend not to be as crash-involved as old cars. Third, and maybe most important is a thank you to law enforcement across the country for their zero tolerance enforcement of child passenger safety laws and adult belt laws.

CHAT PARTICIPANT: When is the appropriate age for a child to sit up front?

HURLEY: The best advice of the National Safety Council is that kids 12 and under are best protected in an age-appropriate device in the rear seat. That is, kids up to age one and 20 pounds in a rear-facing infant seat, from one year and 20 pounds through age 4 in a forward facing car seat, and up through age 8 in a booster seat. And then in an adult belt.

CNN: It is legal to turn off airbags -- is that something that people should consider?

HURLEY: There are procedures by which you can get a switch installed that would turn off an airbag when a child has to be in front. That generally is in the case of a two-seat car, or a pickup truck. The best advice, of course, is to have kids 12 and under in the rear seat, properly restrained.

CHAT PARTICIPANT: What about small adults -- are there any reports on that?

HURLEY: There were, I believe, generally short-statured female fatalities in the '96-'98 time period. There have been none recently, but the best advice again is for adults to be restrained in a shoulder belt, and the driver should be 10 inches back from the airbag. So, that really was not anything like as significant a pattern as the child fatalities.

CHAT PARTICIPANT: How are you promoting seatbelt safety these days?

HURLEY: Seatbelt use is the single-most important highway safety issue facing the United States. We have one of the lowest belt use rates of any developed country in the world. The belt use rate just released today in our press conference is 73 percent for the U.S., comparing to 93 percent in Canada, 99 percent in Australia, 95-97 percent in Britain and Northern Europe. We simply must do better. California, at 90 percent, proves we can do better.

If the country got to 90 percent belt use, as California proves we can do, we would save 4,000 lives a year. There are not many ways the National Safety Council knows to save that many lives. If seatbelts were medicine, we would consider them wonder drugs for the serious and fatal injuries they prevent. Finally, in November upcoming, and in May each year, more than 10,000 law enforcement agencies join with us in high visibility enforcement of the carseat and belt laws.

CHAT PARTICIPANT: Why is it so hard for people to understand that seatbeat saves lives?

HURLEY: Very good question. There's a deeply held belief that the crash will not happen to them, and this belief is strongest among the highest-risk groups, like teenagers and risk-takers. We heavily subsidize the people who don't wear belts who are in crashes and severely injured. No one has the right to put a child at risk. Kids don't set the level of risk they face. Adults do that for them, and when the adult driver is buckled, 94 percent of the time the kids in that car are properly buckled. When the adult is unbuckled, that number drops to 30%. So, adults who don't buckle often carry kids unbuckled, which is inexcusable.

CHAT PARTICIPANT: What types of medical injuries are caused by the position of the seatbelt across the body?

HURLEY: The belt should be properly positioned, for adults, with the lapbelt low and tight across the hips, not up in the soft tissue areas of the stomach, with the shoulder belt resting comfortably across your clavicle. If the lap belt comes up too high into the stomach area, you can have severe internal injuries from the belt itself. In severe crashes, there can be bruising from the belt, which, by the way, is far better than the windshield, and load limiters in new belt systems allow some give in the belt, to reduce the possibility of chest fractures in extremely severe crashes.

CHAT PARTICIPANT: I like to sit closer to the wheel -- am I at risk?

HURLEY: The answer is yes. That is with or without an airbag. Sitting up next to the wheel is not a good idea because of the tremendous force in crashes. One of the advances that is becoming widely used are pedal adjusters, which allow you to sit back, and have the pedals come to you, rather than have you move forward to reach the pedals.

CHAT PARTICIPANT: Can an airbag be made as to be safe for children?

HURLEY: Generally the answer is no, in that kids are at exactly the wrong height -- that is, right at the height of the airbag door as it deploys. If they're unrestrained, they take the full force of the deploying bag in the head and neck areas, which can be serious, if not fatal. That's why our strong advice of kids properly restrained in the rear seat. It may be, in the future, that bag designs may change this advice, but certainly not now.

CNN: As we approach a holiday weekend, many people will be getting in their cars to enjoy the last bit of summer. What are the main things they need to know to beef up their safety?

HURLEY: The single most important thing they can do is make sure everybody is properly belted. To put it in perspective, the Firestone tire issue has received extraordinary attention. In the past 10 years, 203 people have died from that risk. In that same 10-year period, we lost 90,000 people to not wearing belts. Belt use is literally 1,000 times more important than many things people worry about. The public has a right to safe tires, but that's how important belt use is. The obvious other advice is that alcohol has no place on the highway. The simple message is, don't drink and drive. The third message is slow down, obey the speed limit, and enjoy the weekend.

CHAT PARTICIPANT: Chuck, have you heard any discussion concerning the possible use of seat belts on motorcycles?

HURLEY: There is a new Italian design from BMW that has a full rollbar cage on a motorcycle, with shoulder belt restraints. I'm not aware of any in the United States. And belts would only work if there is a cage to protect the motorcyclists.

CNN: How tough are the state laws? What are the strictest laws? What about the weakest? Expecting any legislative changes this year?

HURLEY: The best belt law in the United States surprisingly is in the District of Columbia. It carries a $50 fine, and two points on the license. Needless to say, belt use is quite high in the nation's capitol. Seventeen states and D.C. and Puerto Rico have regular belt laws, meaning they can be enforced for that violation. The other 33 states have weak belt laws, called secondary belt laws, which cannot be enforced unless the vehicle is stopped for another offense. Most states have 1200-1300 traffic laws, but only one that doesn't allow for regular enforcement. In 33 states, that's the seatbelt law.

CNN: Do you have any final thoughts to share with us?

HURLEY: There has been remarkable progress in the last five years, but it's essential to remember that nine kids were still killed by airbags in 2000. These are nine preventable tragedies. By following the simple ABC's of airbag safety, we can reduce this to zero. A - always slide the seat back and sit back. B - Buckle everyone. C - Children 12 and under properly restrained in a back seat.

CNN: Thank you for joining us today. HURLEY: Thank you for the questions. They were very good.

Chuck Hurley joined the chat via telephone from Washington, D.C. CNN provided a typist for him. The above is an edited transcript of the interview on Thursday, August 30, 2001.