Booster seats [Broadcast on TVNZ One News 20 March 2010].

This recorded TV1 One News item features an interview with Starship Trauma Specialist Elizabeth Segedin talking about injuries to children who are moved out of booster seats too soon. It also features video of an event where The Polka Dots (a singing and performing group) performed the booster seat safety song. North Shore City Council Road Safety Coordinator Angie Cheong is also interviewed at the event. The event aimed to encourage children to recognize the safety benefits of staying in booster seats for longer (until they are over 148 cms tall). The TVNZ website carried this information: "Road safety campaigners have jumpstarted a new push to keep kids in booster seats until they are older. Instead of relying solely on a law change they are hoping to convince children to play a bigger part in looking after their own safety. It is a simple message, but despite years of campaigning, it has not been getting through to parents, says trauma specialist Doctor Elizabeth Segedin. "I think the law gives a very false sense to parents, by saying it's okay to graduate to an adult seatbelt when a child turns five. That is simply not the science and not the case clinically," Segedin says. Most primary school age children should still be in booster seats, but many of them are not. "It's not so much about the age, it's about the height. They have to be 148 cm (tall). Below (that) they have to be in a booster seat, that's the safer way to travel," says Angie Cheong, road safety co-ordinator. Anyone shorter than 148 cm, and that includes some nine, 10 and 11-year-olds, risks severe neck, head and abdominal injuries in a crash. The government is looking at making it compulsory within the next 10 years for all children under the age of 10 to sit in booster seats. But until the law changes, doctors are hoping kids will demand their parents boost them up for longer."