There are millions of American adults who, unfortunately, don’t know the proper way to restrain their children in car seats. A study that was conducted by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration back in 2015 found that about 37 percent of children who fell between the ages of 4 and 7 were not properly restrained in car seats on a regular basis. But thankfully, that could all be coming to an end soon thanks to a new app.
The app, which was created by researchers at the University of Arkansas and John Hopkins University, is called Safety in Seconds.
It’s designed to provide those with young children, the education they need to secure their kids in a car seat properly. The researchers tested it by recruiting parents from two different areas—a city on the East Coast and a town in the rural Midwest—and asking them questions about car seat safety. They then gave half the parents access to the app and asked both groups additional questions about car seat safety after three months and then again after six months.
The researchers found that those who used the app were about twice as likely to put the proper car seat safety practices into place as those who didn’t have the app after three months. They reported similar results at the six-month mark as well, which suggests the app played a big part in teaching a lot of parents about the value of car seat safety.
As of right now, Safety in Seconds isn’t available to the public just yet. The researchers are likely still tweaking it to make it as user-friendly as possible. But it sure sounds like the app will do a lot of good in the world once it’s released. It could end up preventing car seat safety issues and keep children all over the country safe when they’re traveling in vehicles.
At 4N6XPRT Systems, we understand the importance of vehicle safety. We’ve spent more than 20 years developing powerful accident reconstruction software tools like 4N6XPRT StifCalcs to help attorneys, insurance companies and law enforcement agencies establish fault in car accidents.