Developmentally Disabled Children Recycle Car Seats: A Win-Win Program
1 Lovelace Medical Foundation, Albuquerque, NM
2 Office of Environmental Health and Engineering, Navajo Area Indian Health Service, Shiprock, NM
3 Dept of Emergency Medicine, University of New Mexico School of Medicine, Albuquerque, NM
Injuries are the leading cause of death for Native Americans from age 1 to 44 years, accounting for 63% of all deaths in that age range.1 Motor vehicles are responsible for 55% of all Native American injury deaths.2 Among Native American children 1 to 14 years of age, the death rate from motor-vehicle occupant injuries (6.9/100 000 per year) is more than double that of white children in the United States (3.3/100 000 per year).3
To help reduce this toll, both the Indian Health Service (IHS) and individual tribes have initiated car seat loaner programs. Because of widespread povertythe unemployment rate is as high as 80% in some Native American communitiesno fees or deposits are collected in many of these programs.
Submitted on July 22, 1992Accepted on September 17, 1992




