AAP Wants to Ban Kids in Back of Trucks

N E W   Y O R K, Oct. 2 -- A national effort to prevent kids from riding in the back of pickup trucks could save nearly a hundred lives a year, a new report says.

The American Academy of Pediatrics report, released today, called on state governments to pass legislation that would ban children from riding in the cargo area, also known as the beds or backs, of pickup trucks. The group also is pushing for better safety counseling for parents purchasing these vehicles. The report further outlined a number of dangers for children riding inside truck cabs, which rarely have the rear seats considered safe for child passengers.

“Increasingly pickup trucks are being used as family vehicles instead of as farm equipment,” says Marilyn J. Bull, the pediatrics association’s chairwoman on Injury and Poison Prevention. She hopes today’s report will lead to heightened awareness on the part of physicians and their patients that cargo is never safe for transportation purposes and that great care needs to be taken when riding with kids in the cabs of trucks.

“Travel in the cargo area of a pickup truck is a major occupant protection issue that disproportionately involves youth,” the report says. Citing the Federal Highway Administration, it says children and adolescents made up 77 of the 161 passenger deaths in the cargo area of pickups in 1997.

More Legislation Needed?

Only 24 states currently have laws placing restrictions on kids riding in the back of pickup trucks, the pediatrician group says. While legislation varies from state to state, most bans on truck bed riding apply to children under 16, according to Stephen Oesch, a spokesman for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, an Arlington, Va.-based nonprofit research organization funded by automobile insurers.

Many states make exceptions for parades, farm operations and emergencies, he said. New Jersey is the only state that prohibits riding in the open bed of a pickup truck without exception.