People often hang placards in their car windows or put bumper stickers on their vehicles when they become new parents. They want to remind others to be cautious around them for the safety of their child.
After all, motor vehicle collisions are a leading cause of both premature mortality and severe injury in children. Other drivers may want to be especially careful when they recognize that they are close to a vehicle with an infant or other young children inside. However, their concern may be more for their own safety rather than the child passengers of other motorists.
Children often increase collision risk
Having children in a vehicle is a potentially dangerous source of distraction. Children of all ages make noises in an attempt to gain attention from their parents. Babies might drop their bottles or throw their pacifiers. They may then begin screaming until they get the comfort that they want.
Young children may repeatedly ask questions or throw temper tantrums while in a vehicle. Even teenage siblings may fight with one another. Parents often find that the children in their vehicles are a profound source of distraction. They have to mentally split their focus between monitoring their surroundings and attending to the needs of their children.
They may feel the need to take their eyes off of the road to look at their children in the backseat or try to find the reason the infant in the car started crying. They may even take a hand off of the wheel to pick up and hand something to one of their children or reach for an item that a toddler threw.
All of those sources of distraction combine to significantly increase the likelihood of a parent causing a distracted driving crash. Distraction alone can be a good reason to give a parent with children in the vehicle as much space as possible in traffic.
Even when there may not be children in the vehicle with the parent, the parent may still be a somewhat dangerous driver. Those with infants or toddlers at home often have unstable sleep schedules. Their profound fatigue can affect their driving abilities.
While people may typically feel sympathetic toward new parents, they may still need to hold them accountable if they cause a car crash. Identifying factors that make people dangerous on the road can help people optimize their safety in traffic.