New Publication from JH-IIRU Team Members and Road Safety Colleagues in Mexico

Recently, members of the Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit (JH-IIRU) team, including research program coordinator, Jeffrey C. Lunnen and associated faculty, Aruna Chandran, collaborated with colleagues from the National Institute of Public Health in Cuernavaca, Mexico, and the Center for Health Sciences, University of Guadalajara to published, “The use of Seatbelts and Child Restraints in Three Mexican Cities.”

The study, part of the Road Safety in 10 Countries Project (RS10), aims to demonstrate the need for increased targeted interventions of these safety devices by assessing the prevalence of seatbelt and child restraint use in three cities: Guadalajara-Zapopan, León and Cuernavaca, two RS10 intervention sites and one control site, respectively. When worn properly, seatbelts have been shown to decrease the risk of fatality from a road traffic crash by 40-50% among front seat passengers and 25-75% in rear-seat passengers. Likewise, when child restraints are installed and used correctly, they have been shown to reduce death from road crashes by 70% in infants and 54-80% in small children.

“The Use of Seatbelt and Child Restraints in Three Mexican Cities,” has been published in the International Journal of Injury Control and Safety Promotion.

Access the paper here: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17457300.2012.754477?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori:rid:crossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub%3dpubmed