Man’s innate desire is to protect and ensure the continued safety of his offspring; however, current lifestyle choices make the process difficult. In children between 0-19 years, unintentional injuries resulted in 7000 deaths in 2019 (Ballesteros et al., 2008). Car motor crashes are a leading cause of these deaths, with significant numbers in male African-American children. It is essential to minimize child injuries and deaths because they are the future of society. An educational program on car safety practices such as seat belt wearing and mapping adult driving habits will benefit male African-American children between 0-19 years and minimize unintentional child injuries and deaths regarding motor accidents.
Installing an educational program in African-American communities that teaches car safety practices is a practical approach to negating child-related accidents. The program will objectively sensitize black families on car safety practices such as seat belt wearing and installing rear-facing toddler seats, and using booster seats. Black children were involved in more motor crashes in 2019 than other races, necessitating intense interventions to prevent fatal injuries (Farrell et al., 2018). The intervention aims to minimize the disparity in child injuries between different races and effectively curb motor accident-related deaths. Salow et al. note that using a car safety belt reduces the risk of death by 71% in toddlers (2019). Therefore, educating children on the proper application of seatbelts will massively improve the current statistics.
Moreover, the program will provide information on the benefit and use of booster seats and advise parents on placing children in the backseat rather than the front (Pollok et al., 2019). To evaluate the program, parents and teachers will answer questionnaires that assess the child’s behavior in the car since they are present during trips to and from school. The questionnaire will map the child’s behavior and determine whether they are implementing car safety procedures.
In conclusion, child safety and injury prevention are relevant health issues impacting American society. The highest number of deaths in children between 0-19 years emanates from car accidents. Black children are particularly affected and require an educational program on car safety to reduce fatalities. Adopting practices such as wearing car safety belts and using rear-facing toddler seats are practical solutions to ensuring children arrive safely and healthily at their destinations.
References
Ballesteros, M. F., Borse, N. N., & Dellinger, A. M. (2008). CDC childhood injury report; patterns of unintentional injuries among 0-19 year olds in the United States, 2000-2006. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Web.
Farrell, C. A., Dodington, J., & Lee, L. K. (2018). Pediatric injury prevention, the EMSC, and the CDC.Clinical Pediatric Emergency Medicine, 19(3), 216–225. Web.
Pollok, L. J., Barczyk, A. N., Piper, K., Burg, B., & Garcia, N. M. (2019). Evaluation of an after-hours child passenger safety resource guide. Journal of Trauma Nursing, 26(6). Web.
Salow, V. A., Simon, N.-J. E., & Sheehan, K. (2019). Mapping child safety seat use in cases of fatal or incapacitating child motor vehicle injury in Cook County, Illinois from 2011 to 2015. Journal of Community Health, 44(3), 605–609. Web.