Dr. Flaura Winston works to prevent children from being hurt in car accidents. She and her team at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia have played an important role in discovering the safest ways for children to ride in cars. For instance, her team’s research showed that children should stay in booster seats until they are at least 4 feet, 9 inches tall and weigh 80 pounds. That is when an adult seat belt fits properly and keeps a passenger secure in an accident. Dr. Winston says seat belts do a great job for adults because they are designed for them. But they are not always designed as well for children. A seat belt that is not in the right position on a child’s body doesn’t do as good a job as it can in protecting children. It can even cause broken bones or damage soft organs. But when a child uses a booster seat with a seat belt, the seat belt fits low on the hips and over the chest—where it can better hold the child in place in an accident. Dr. Flaura K. Winston Discovering ways to make car rides safer She says children are actually more comfortable riding in booster seats. The seat belt does not rub against the neck. She remembers that some children used to worry that they would be teased for still using a booster seat as they got older, but she says such teasing is happening less often today. Her patients like their booster seats because they can see out the window. When asked what an adult should do if a car does not have enough of the right seating for children, Dr. Winston says the driver should make more than one trip. When she picks up her son and his friends from school, she will make two trips if she has more teenagers than seat belts. “A driver never wants to choose which child is safe with a car seat and which one is not,” she says. As car rides have become safer, Dr. Winston says, the number of children dying in accidents has fallen from 2,000 a year to about 1,000. “This is still too many deaths, but we are making progress, because we are better protecting our children,” she says. She is proud that her research has helped save lives. She says she cares so much about this issue because she knows that for “a mother, it is the saddest time in your life to see your child in the hospital.”