Citation

Douglass M, Forster Resch ML, Williams EM, Moeller MS, Wiffin G, Novak A, Hales J, Sides M. J. Emerg. Nurs. 2005; 31(1): 21.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2005, Emergency Nurses Association, Publisher Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.jen.2004.07.066

PMID

15682117

Abstract

The North Carolina State Council of the Emergency Nurses Association is committed to the concept of primary prevention through public awareness and education. An issue of great concern to the Council has been the lack of understanding by the public about the importance of car seat use, including the need to discard seats that have been involved in a motor vehicle crash of enough severity to render them useless. Currently, North Carolina State law does not prohibit the sale of used car seats in yard sales or consignment stores.  The initial goal of the project has been to educate the public regarding car seat safety in general, as well as the criteria for safe seat use after a motor vehicle crash (MVC) as established by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). This public education included a media campaign involving one newspaper article for both children and a television spot highlighting a safety seat clinic for national Child Passenger Safety Seat Week. Our Government Affairs, Injury Prevention, and Educational Committees are working collaboratively to address this issue by pursuing state legislators to sponsor bills prohibiting the sale of used car seats and allowing EMS and law enforcement to place an identifying sticker on any seat involved in an impact that renders it unsafe according to NHTSA criteria. This has been enacted in other states, including Pennsylvania's Car Seat Involved in Crash - DO NOT USE Campaign that falls under the Child Safety Protection Act of 1993. The project has been a success in the sense that the Council has had a good response from the media in disseminating educational materials to the public. The new television spot of safety seat use and the new NHTSA criteria will be of great benefit to the public. Gaining the attention of our elected officials has been a challenge; an ongoing effort to meet with state senators and leaders of the appropriate health affairs committees continues. Further legislative updates will be reported at the Scientific Assembly 2004. Car seat safety is a national issue and should be addressed at that level as well. Using North Carolina and Pennsylvania as examples, the Council should proceed with such discussions, collaborating with the ENA Government Affairs Committee to encourage a change in federal mandates. Emergency nurses should educate any person involved in a motor vehicle crash in which a safety seat is involved to inspect the seat following the NHTSA criteria.