Researchers at the Yale University School of Medicine have published a study indicating that children are able to unbuckle their seatbelts at age three and younger. In the study, presented at a Pediatric Academic Societies meeting on May 1, Lilia Reyes, M.D., a clinical fellow in the Department of Pediatrics, Section of Emergency Medicine, sought to determine the age at which a child begins to self-unbuckle and also the frequency of children doing so when the car is in motion.
Reyes and her co-authors surveyed sample families in pediatric offices in Connecticut. They found that children ranging in age from 12 to 78 months unbuckle their seatbelts themselves, with 75% of them under age three. Of the children self-unbuckling, 43% did so while the car was in motion; 29% were in a five-point restraint. The study’s findings include a recommendation for further study to assess the safest restraint device, particularly because motor vehicle accidents are the leading cause of death among four- to eight-year-olds.
