If you need your parents to pick up the kids from day camp but worry they might not be safe riding in the car, think again. According to a new study by the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, kids are safer riding in cars when their grandparents – not their parents – are driving.
The study, published in the journal Pediatrics, looked at insurance-claims data from State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. involving children in 15 states from 2003-2007. In 90% of the accidents, parents were driving, but only 10% involved a grandparent driver. Researchers suggest that grandparents drive more cautiously when their grandkids are in the car.
"We were surprised to discover that the injury rate was considerably lower in crashes where grandparents were the drivers," said Dr. Fred Henretig, an emergency medicine specialist at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the study's lead author. "Perhaps grandparents are made more nervous about the task of driving with the 'precious cargo' of their grandchildren and establish more cautious driving habits to compensate for any age-related challenges.”
What an interesting
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Let me clarify the results of
Let me clarify the results of the study, just reported in the journal Pediatrics. In a nearly five-year period, in a sample of children who were driven by parents and children who were driven by grandparents, the children driven by grandparents made up 9.5% of the sample of children but resulted in only 6.6% of the total injuries. So adjusting for the number of times parents drove kids versus the number of time grandparents drove kids, the percentage of injuries was less when grandparents drove than when parents drove. Quoting the study results: “Injuries were reported for 1302 children, for an overall injury rate of 1.02 (95% CI: 0.90 –1.17) per 100 child occupants. These represented 161 weighted injuries (0.70% injury rate) with grandparent drivers and 2293 injuries (1.05% injury rate) with parent drivers." You can read the whole study online at Pediatrics.org.
Hope this helps everyone understand the results better.
Barbara Turvett, Deputy Editor, Working Mother
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