Precious Cargo: Enhancing Safety of Pediatric Patient Transport
- NEMSQA
- 34 minute webinar; 25 minute Q&A
This section includes webinars and information related to the safe transportation of children in ground ambulances.
(Last updated: December 18, 2025)
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When embarking on a road trip to Disney World, it's a given that you would ensure young kids are securely seated in an appropriate car seat. It's equally crucial to acknowledge that ambulances are susceptible to accidents, putting passengers at risk of injury. Therefore, it's vital for all passengers to be properly restrained. Just as there are safety guidelines and standards for child restraint in standard passenger vehicles, similar guidelines exist for transporting pediatric patients in ambulances. Unfortunately, these guidelines aren't always well understood or followed. Join us as we continue the webinar series, Tools for EMS to Operationalize Evidence-Based Care with Dr. Kathleen Adelgais to discuss a new NEMSQA safety measure. She will shed light on why it's so important to ensure the proper restraint of pediatric patients and how to effectively measure this critical safety practice.
Hosted by NEMSQA; 1 hour CE available through Prodigy EMS. (October 2023)
In this National Child Passenger Safety (CPS) Board webinar, Oregon Fire Captain and CPS Instructor Scott Downing discusses child passenger safety in emergency vehicles. He covers these main topics:
- Identifying potential hazards
- Safety misconceptions
- Exploring considerations and recommendations for transport
- Applying the concept of "Good, Better, Best"
- Conversations to help guide your SOP's/SOG's
The National Highway Safety Administration estimates that there are 4,500 traffic crashes each year involving ambulances, with 34% resulting in injuries and 33 deaths. Most of these injuries and deaths are preventable if patients and EMS clinicians are properly restrained in the ambulance, but research shows that only 33% of patients and less than 25% of EMS clinicians in the patient compartment are properly restrained. Jim Green, BS, MBA, Mechanical Engineer, (retired from NIOSH) will discuss the latest research and data on restraint use, and standards and products for ambulance transport as it pertains to patients and providers.