Grandparents often drive their grandchildren in vehicles, and many grandparents are in an older age group that has a higher risk of severe crashes.
So researchers in a new study, "Grandparents Driving Grandchildren: An Evaluation of Child Passenger Safety and Injuries," in the August 2011 issue of Pediatrics (published online July 18), hypothesized that grandparent-driven children would be at higher risk of injury. What they found is that children are actually safer in a crash when grandma or grandpa is behind the wheel.
The study authors examined five years worth of crash data, including 217,976 children. Grandparents comprised 9.5 percent of drivers in crashes (the rest were parents), but resulted in only 6.6 percent of the total injuries. Nearly all children were reported to be restrained at the time of the crash, however children in grandparent-driven vehicles were less likely to be optimally restrained. Despite this, children in grandparent-driven crashes had half the risk of injuries as those in parent-driven crashes.
Study authors suggest grandparents may drive more cautiously when they have "precious cargo" on board, but they also conclude that children's safety could be enhanced if grandparents followed current child restraint guidelines.
