THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT.  THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. BRIAN NELSON, CNN ANCHOR: We begin with children's safety right now. A new report is looking at children's vests that are linked to automobile air bags. And Elaine Quijano is in Alexandria, Virginia now with the findings now -- good morning, Elaine.</s>ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Brian. Well, experts say that front air bags are an important safety feature for adults. But they also emphasize that children 12 and under need to ride in the back seat. The reason? Some air bags can hurt children.</s>QUIJANO (voice-over): Robert Sanders knows first hand what dangers air bags can pose to children.</s>ROBERT SANDERS, PARENTS FOR SAFER AIR BAGS: It is a heartbreak I live with every day.</s>QUIJANO: In October of 1995, Sanders rear-ended another car while going just nine miles per hour. The impact was enough to deploy both his air bag and the one in the right-front passenger seat, where his 7-year-old daughter, Allison, was sitting.</s>SANDERS: The bag went off and struck her in the head with such force that she was immediately brain dead, and we took her off life support the next day.</s>QUIJANO: In 1996, air bags were linked to the deaths of 26 children, but now the results of a five-year study by the National Safety Council show a dramatic decrease. Last year, nine children died. Traffic safety officials say the main reasons: more parents are following the recommendation that children 12 and under ride in the back seat. They also point to improvements in air bag technology.</s>PHILIP HASELTINE, AUTOMOBILE SAFETY ADVOCATE: The air bags in today's vehicle deploy less forcefully than those of a few years ago.</s>QUIJANO: But Robert Sanders has mixed feelings about the report. He sees the decline as deaths as progress but wishes the safety measures had been taken earlier.
Children Ride Safer In Backseat