The Exploration of Factors That Affect Travel Safety of Child Passengers

摘要

There are few studies on the travel safety of child passenger in China. The study aims to describe the seating position and restraint practice of child passenger in China’s first-tier cities. The travel information on the children enrolled in 10 early education institutions, 15 kindergartens and 10 primary schools was randomly selected in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chongqing and Jinan in recent years. A total of 4900 parents were surveyed to collect children’s travel information and 3556 valid questionnaires were taken back. The adjusted rate ratios for optimal seating position (rear-seated alone) versus suboptimal seating position and restraint use versus non-use of restraints among child passengers were analyzed and evaluated using multivariate binomial regression. Through the survey, it is found that the suboptimal seat ing position (31.2%) and non-use of restraints (45.4%) were common among child passengers. Younger age (≤8 years old) is an unfavorable factor resulting in seating in rear seats by child passengers; and the higher the driver’s degree of education, the higher the family income and the more understanding about car seat is, the bigger likelihood of being rear-seated alone by child passengers is. Younger age (≤8 years old) is also an unfavorable factor resulting in restraint use by child passengers; and the more understanding about car seat, the more concern on the relevant legislative information and the more knowledge about defective car seat recall have by parents, the bigger likelihood of using restraints for their children during travel. This study suggests that restraint non-use and suboptimal seating position are still common among child passengers in China’s first-tier cities and also identifies the factors influencing restraint use and seating position choice for child passengers. There is an urgent need to improve child passenger safety in China. At the same time, it is also necessary to strengthen the publicity about child passenger’s safety before the relevant laws and regulations are promulgated.