Are Children Safer When Driven by Grandparents Than by Parents?

Grandparents represent a large pool of drivers of young children. To compare risk for child injury in car crashes with grandparent versus parent drivers, researchers examined details of motor vehicle crashes involving policyholders from a national auto insurance company. Nearly 12,000 crashes from January 2003 through November 2007 involved at least one child occupant. Grandparents accounted for 10% of drivers and parents for 90%; 1% of children in crashes were injured.

The unadjusted risk for child injury was 33% lower for crashes involving grandparent drivers than parent drivers (0.7% vs. 1.05%). After adjustment for driver, child, and crash characteristics, risk for injury was 50% lower for crashes with grandparent drivers. Although child…