National Safety Council Issues Call on Child Restraint

The U.S.-based National Safety Council (NSC) is calling for uniform child passenger safety practices across multiple modes of transportation, including school buses, airplanes and personal vehicles. As far as aviation is concerned, the NSC is calling for all children ages 2 and younger “to be properly restrained in their own seat on airplanes using an FAA-approved child restraint device.” The president and CEO of the NSC is Deborah A.P. Hersman, a former chair of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, who has long advocated more stringent child restraint rules. In a guest editorial in the July 2014 issue of AeroSafety World, Hersman said: “In the end, failing to require that all passengers, including children younger than 2, be restrained is a glaring safety gap in what is otherwise a safety-centric industry.”