Economy, Convenience, and Safety: Can We Have It All?

Abstract

In this issue of Pediatrics, we learn about the dangers of travel in the cargo beds of pick-up trucks,1 a problem that is both old and new. Although we may have only recently given this hazard the attention it deserves, the issues surrounding safe travel in pick-up trucks are common to most other injury control problems. This is but the latest example of the challenge encountered when safety measures appear to threaten individual freedom, personal convenience, or economic "reality." In the South, the Southwest, and much of rural America, the pick-up truck is, for many families, the only practical vehicle for both work and family transportation.