By Warren Brown
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 16, 1999; Page A08

Seeking to plug a safety gap that causes hundreds of child deaths a year, a federal panel yesterday called for new booster seat standards, a reexamination of seat belt designs and increased parental vigilance in properly securing their children.

Children from 4 to 15, known to auto safety experts as the "forgotten children," have been dying at an alarming rate on the nation's highways because they are too big to use infant and child-safety seats and too small to be protected effectively by lap belts and shoulder harnesses designed for adults, the panel said.

Booster seats are supposed to help reduce that problem, but few parents use them. Only about 5 percent of children use booster seats, and the panel yesterday recommended that parents put children weighing from 40 to 80 pounds (from about age 4 to 9) in them.

An estimated 1,627 children aged 4 through 15 were killed riding in motor vehicles in 1997, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The number of deaths and injuries has risen about 15 percent in the past five years, and the agency said at least 500 of those lives could have been saved with the proper use of booster seats and seat belts.

Many children who are restrained are improperly restrained or are the victims of well-intentioned parental mistakes such as "being put into safety belts when they would be better off in a booster seat," said Phil Haseltine, chairman of the 28-person panel, which was formed last fall by the Department of Transportation and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The panel -- composed of federal auto safety representatives as well as people from the auto, auto insurance and safety component supplier industries -- represents a broad range of viewpoints within the industry, and thus its recommendations are expected to have an impact.

A similar panel that in 1995 focused on children under the age of 4 was influential in leading to the adoption of the recently announced universal anchor system for child-safety seats.

Federal rules for child-safety seats now cover seats designed for a child weighing about 48 pounds -- the average weight of 6-year-olds -- and the panel recommended that manufacturers be given the go-ahead to develop an advanced booster seat designed to serve a child weighing up to 80 pounds.

None of the booster seats that are made for children 50 pounds and more is covered by federal safety standards.

"There is a gap not filled," a NHTSA official said.

NHTSA safety officials say that children up to 80 pounds are probably safest in well-padded booster-type seats that allow use of the lap and shoulder belt system installed in the vehicle.

"The booster doesn't have to be called a booster," said the NHTSA official, acknowledging the resistance of older children to riding in a booster seat. It could be called "a restraint. It could be developed for older children."

The majority of today's lap belt and shoulder harness arrangements are designed for adults. That means the belts might fit too loosely on children, allowing them to wriggle out of position or to wear the belts improperly, such as putting the shoulder harness under the arm instead of across the shoulder.

Some automakers already have attempted to address the issue by installing adjustable shoulder harnesses in a number of passenger sedans.

But the panel said that more research needs to be done to develop effective belts for children. It recommended that Congress increase the federal motor fuel tax by one-half of a cent, to generate $750 million to pay for research and other safety programs.

The panel also urged that states toughen seat-belt use laws nationwide. Officials believe children will wear seat belts properly if they see their parents doing so.

In all 50 states and the District, laws require children to be restrained in vehicles but normally target children only to age 4 or 5.

In contrast, although the government recommends that all children under age 13 ride in back seats, most states lack seat belt laws requiring older children to be restrained in the back seat.

Recommendations such as developing new booster seats depend on information that can be obtained from crash dummies representing children in the study group. But a dummy representing a 10-year-old child does not now exist because of the lack of child cadavers, researchers said.

Staff writer Cindy Skrzycki contributed to this report.