2007 Motor Vehicle Occupant Safety Survey

2007 Motor Vehicle Occupant Safety Survey
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 4
Release: 2009
Genre: Automobile drivers
ISBN:

The Motor Vehicle Occupant Safety Survey (MVOSS) is a national telephone survey administered by NHTSA on a periodic basis to obtain data on attitudes, knowledge, and self-reported behavior primarily in areas of occupant protection. The sample is composed of randomly selected people 16 and older residing in the 50 States and the District of Columbia. People 16 to 39 are over-sampled to obtain more seat belt nonusers and more adults with children who should be using child restraints. The survey was first administered in 1994 and has been conducted five times since then. The most recent survey took place from January 9, 2007, to April 30, 2007.

2007 Motor Vehicle Occupant Safety Survey

2007 Motor Vehicle Occupant Safety Survey
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 141
Release: 2009
Genre: Automobile drivers
ISBN:

The 2007 Motor Vehicle Occupant Safety Survey was the sixth in a series of periodic national telephone surveys on occupant protection issues conducted for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Data collection was conducted by Schulman, Ronca & Bucuvalas, Inc., a national survey research organization. The survey used two questionnaires, each administered to a randomly selected national sample of about 6,000 persons age 16 or older. Interviewing began January 9, 2007 and ended April 30, 2007. This report presents the survey findings pertaining to child restraint use. Detailed information on the survey methodology, as well as copies of the questionnaires, are contained in a separate NHTSA report (2007 Motor Vehicle Occupant Safety Survey. Volume 1. Methodology Report). Among drivers who lived with children age 12 or younger, most indicated that the youngest child typically rode in the back seat. Parents/caregivers of children under the age of 9 usually said the (referent) child either used a child car seat all the time(77%) or never (18%). If the child never used a car seat, it usually was because the child had graduated to seat belt use. However, 23% of the children who never used a car seat but wore seat belts said the shoulder belt cut across their face or neck on most trips, 23% usually put the shoulder belt behind their back, and 12% put the shoulder belt under their arm. Many children ages 6 through 8 discontinued using child car seats (including booster seats). Although booster seats are recommended for most children ages 4 through 8, the survey found only 40% of children in that age range using them and another 24% using front-facing child safety seats. While most parents/caregivers (92%) had heard of booster seats, 17% of these had concerns about their safety.