Enhancing Hospital-Based Child Passenger Safety Through Car Seat Loaner Program

Alejandra Mateos Castanon, BA, CPSTI

Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death and injury for children between 1-17 years. In 2021, 711 child passengers ages 12 and younger died in a motor vehicle crash in the United States. Out of these children, 36% were not properly buckled up (cdc.gov). Parents and caregivers play a crucial role in keeping children safe on the road. The purpose of our car seat loaner program is to help discharging families tailored to their specific car seat needs, whether that’s assisting with installation or providing a car seat if the family doesn’t have one. This program is crucial to our patient families as we ensure children are traveling safely in the car.

Our loaner program is based at a hospital and is available to both inpatient and outpatient families. Families can borrow available car seats or restraints from our program for a 90-day period for a $20 cash-only deposit that is returned once family returns the loaner. A loaner can be issued when a family was in a motor vehicle collision and can’t use their own car seat anymore, lives 20 miles or more from the hospital and don’t have access to their car seat prior to discharge, family does not have a car seat for patient, and if the patient is in a cast or brace and doesn’t fit their own car seat.

The effectiveness and impact of our car seat loaner program can be measured by the number of car seats and restraints distributed to families in need. During the 2023–2024 program year alone, we provided 98 loaner car seats to patient families who otherwise may not have had access to an appropriate child restraint; most of these loaners were for patients that had a brace or cast and did not fit their own car seat. Our program assists multiple departments throughout the hospital including Orthopedics, NICCU, CV Acute, CTICU, and AltaMed. One of our program’s limitations is that restraints don’t always come back after the 90-days. To address this challenge, one effective measure is to call parents with reminders about the upcoming end of the loaning period.

Our car seat loaner program is very beneficial to the community as it offers the opportunity to temporarily borrow a car seat or restraint during times when they may not have immediate access to one, or the one they have is not appropriate. Even if a loaner is not needed/provided to a family, our program staff who are Child Passenger Technician Instructors, provide child passenger safety education and go over installation and proper harnessing of their own car seat.

1. Participants will learn about our car seat loaner program’s efforts to ensure adequate child passenger safety of our patients

2. Participants will learn about the eligibility criteria for the program and process for accessing this program

3. Participants will understand the challenges associated with this program and the approach towards addressing them