It may surprise you, but kids may be safest in cars when grandma or grandpa are driving instead of mom or dad. That's according to study results that even made the researchers do a double-take.
"We were surprised to discover that the injury rate was considerably lower in crashes where grandparents were the drivers," said Dr. Fred Henretig, an emergency medicine specialist at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the study's lead author.
Some may be inclined to think grandma and grandpa may be more likely to get into accidents. In fact, previous evidence backs that up, suggesting car crashes are more common in older drivers, mostly those beyond age 65. However, this study looked at injuries rather than who had more crashes, and found that children's risk for injury was 50 percent lower when riding with grandparents than with parents.
Researchers looked at State Farm insurance claims for car crashes in 15 different states from 2003 through 2007. They also looked at interviews with the drivers.
Only about 10 percent of kids in the study were driven by grandparents, but they suffered proportionately fewer injuries.
Overall, 1.05 percent of kids were injured when riding with parents, versus 0.70 percent of those riding with grandparents, or a 33 percent lower risk. The difference was even more pronounced, 50 percent, when researchers took into account other things that could influence injury rates, including not using car seats, and older-model cars.
Kids suffered similar types of injuries regardless of who was driving, including concussions, other head injuries and broken bones. The study did not include data on deaths, but researchers say there were very few.
Reasons for the unexpected findings are uncertain, but the researchers have a theory."Perhaps grandparents are made more nervous about the task of driving with the `precious cargo' of their grandchildren and establish more cautious driving habits" to compensate for any age-related challenges," researchers said in the report.
While many think of grandparents as those in their 70's or 80's, the average age of grandparents in this study was 58.
"Grandparents today are not that old" and don't fit the image of an impaired older driver, said Northwestern University Professor Joseph Schofer. "None of us should represent grandparents as kind of hobbling to the car on a walker."
In the study, grandparents did flub one safety measure. Nearly all the kids were in car seats or seat belts, but grandparents were slightly less likely to follow recommended practices, which include rear-facing backseat car seats for infants and no front-seats. Despite that, it didn't seem to affect injury rates.
Read more car seat recommendations.
Schofer says other unstudied circumstances could have played a role. "For example, grandparents could be less distracted and less frazzled than busy parents dropping their kids off at school while rushing to get to work or to do errands," he said.
This study was released online today in the journal Pediatrics. Read more by clicking here.
Central New Yorkers had mixed reactions to the study. Lynn Schug, who has five grandchildren, says he could see how grandparents could be better drivers than parents.
"Probably, I would take less chances than them," says Schug. "Being older, I would say you're slowed up a little bit. When you're young, you really have to hit the gas, but now, there's no hurry now."
Kelly Krohl says she was surprised by the results of the study.
"I don't understand why they would say an older age group would be better drivers than a younger age group because you would think younger people would have better reaction time," says Krohl.
Do you agree or disagree with the study? Are kids safer with grandparents or parents behind the wheel? Why? Will this research change the way you drive? Leave your thoughts below.
CNY Central reporter Jessica Cain contributed to this report.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this article.
