The effect of seating location on the injury of properly restrained children in child safety seats

Properly restrained child passengers in the National Automotive Sampling System (NASS), General Estimates System (GES), were studied for the effect of seating position on the risk of injury. The analysis focused on children seated in a child safety seat in a rear seat location. A multiple logistic regression model was used to assess whether the center rear seat is a safer seating position than either of the outboard rear seats. Standard errors for the odds ratios (ORs) of injury for several correlates of injury including seating position were obtained using a jackknife procedure. This analysis of the data showed that the center rear seat is not a safer seating position than either of the outboard rear seats in terms of odds of injury (left seat OR = 0.88, 95% CI = 0.73-1.03; right seat OR = 1.03, 95% CI = 0.85-1.20). These results do not agree with those of previous studies that suggested the center rear seat is the safest position for parents to place a child safety seat.