The increased use of car seats and booster seats may have resulted in children dying less often in traffic accidents, according to a new government study the Associated Press reported.

In the past decade, the number of children who died in crashes dropped by 43 percent, the AP reported, citing a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"The first step is buckling up. Every child, of every age, on every trip," CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden, told the AP

The report, which looked at traffic accidents between 2002 and 2011, found that in the last year of the study, children 12 years and younger accounted for 650 of the 21,000 deaths of drivers and passengers.

Preliminary CDC figures for 2012 show child deaths continued to fall, to 637. The CDC found that traffic fatalities overall declined to levels not seen since the 1940s.

"Children aren't going drinking, and they're not typically out at night," Jonathan Adkins, deputy director of the Governors Highway Safety Association, told the AP.

Adkins added that teens and young adults account for the largest shares of deaths.

Although the CDC study was not designed to answer what drove the decline, experts said less younger children are dying in car crashes because of a large growth in state laws requiring car and booster seats, as well as programs that promote buckling kids up, the AP reported.

The CDC also noticed a racial disparity in how well that has worked. Close to 50 percent of black and Latino children who died in traffic accidents in 2009 and 2010 were not in safety seats or wearing seat belts compared to 25 percent of white deaths.

Experts told the AP this may be related to income, as car seats run well over $100 and are challenging to install. Frieden said there are community programs that provide help and subsidies for car seats.

Parents are urged to keep all children 12 years and younger in the back seat, and to use car or booster seats until seat belts fit properly.