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Don't
Play With Your Child's Life
You Magazine – 18 October 2001, pg. 60
Parents who allow children to sit on their laps
while they're driving are dicing with death. The
law requires child passengers to be restrained
and you're risking your child's life if you ignore
it!
No sensible parents would allow a toddler to
play with a loaded gun; nor would they leave a
baby alone in the bath while they watch TV. Yet
too many people put their little children's lives
at risk every day by irresponsibly driving around
with them on their laps.
They're dicing with death even if the child is
secured with a standard seatbelt on the front
passenger seat of the car. And there's no more
dangerous place for a child than on mom or dad's
lap behind the steering wheel, no matter how carefully
or slowly they drive and even if it's a short
trip to the local shops.
Consider the following facts, backed by research:
"Research shows most traffic accidents occur
within 40 km of the home and at speeds of less
than 70 km/h.
"And there's a horrifying reality: if while
driving you collide at only 50 km/h with a stationary
object the sudden deceleration causes the mass
of any object in the car to increase 30 times.
For instance, at the moment of impact a baby weighing
only 10 kg acquires a mass of 300 kg!
In the fraction of a second after impact the baby
is torn from its mother's arms and hurled with
devastating force against the car's dashboard
or windscreen – usually headfirst because
a baby's head is relatively heavy compared with
the rest of its body, so it accelerates faster.
It’s even worse if the child is secured
by a standard seatbelt on the driver's lap because
the driver's mass also increases thirty fold.
In the moment of impact a 60 kg person develops
a mass of 1500 kg, which means the child is crushed
against the seatbelt by a mass of 1,5 tons!
The result is death or crippling injury –
and a sense of blame and guilt that will haunt
the driver for ever. And it's all caused by ignorance,
negligence and irresponsibility that can be avoided.
Statistics show that fatal accidents can occur
at speeds as slow as 20 km/h and if the driver
merely brakes hard, children, especially babies,
can be thrown about inside a car.
South African law requires the driver and front-seat
passengers to wear seatbelts (it's not yet compulsory
for rear-seat passengers), yet the law is widely
ignored. And even some more responsible drivers
who insist on the use of seatbelts don't ensure
their children are secured by appropriate seatbelts
or in special children's seats.
A survey conducted at Pretoria nursery schools
by the CSIR's National Institute of Transport
and Road Research found that only one per cent
of all children traveling in cars were properly
secured. Of the children driven to nursery schools
by their mothers, 27.3 percent were placed on
the front passenger seat without being secured
by a seat belt. The remainders were usually driven
around on the back seat – also without seatbelts.
The law requires babies to be secured in an approved
child seat, but too many people are ignorant of
the law or ignore it, or the laws aren't strictly
enforced.
Most developed countries have measures in place
to protect children on the road. In 50 American
states toddlers must be secured in child seats
and French law prohibits children younger than
10 from travelling in the front seat. In Switzerland,
Austria, Belgium and Russia the minimum age is
12 and in Norway it's 15.
Up to 500 children younger than 15 die on SA's
roads every year and some 4000 are injured, many
so seriously they're crippled for life.
Long-term research in America and Britain has
shown seatbelts can reduce the number of the child
deaths in vehicle-related accidents by up to 70
per cent. A British survey revealed only 10 per
cent of children under 5 were secured in a child
seat, but none of that group who'd been involved
in traffic accidents had been injured. By contrast,
only 13 per cent of children younger than five
who had not been restrained escaped injury when
involved in car accidents.
Toddlers are particularly vulnerable to injury
in collisions because the mass of a young child's
head in relation to its body causes the child
to be hurled headfirst. The head absorbs the impact
when the child hits an object – the windscreen
or dashboard for example – which can easily
cause fatal brain injuries.
But the need for safety precautions doesn't apply
only to very young children. All child passengers
need to be secured in their seats in some way,
not only for their own safety but also for their
parent's safety. A child sitting unsecured in
the back seat becomes a missile in a collision
and can strike the front occupants in the back
with devastating effect. In a 50 km/h collision
a child with a mass of 30 kg turns into a 900
kg mass slamming into the driver or front passenger.
British research shows that up to six percent
of all adult fatalities in collisions are from
injuries sustained from the impact of passengers
in the back seat. In most cases the front occupant's
neck or back is broken.
It reinforces the need for everyone in a car to
buckle up, from the tiniest baby to the most solid
adult.
There’s a wide choice of child safety
seats, harnesses, restraints and booster seats
for various ages and sizes.
Products by local manufacturers such as Asti and
Safeway carry the SABS mark of approval, while
some important equipment such as the popular Chicco
seats also adhere to rigorous SABS and international
standards.
But be warned: not all imported child restraints
are equally safe, The German motoring publication
Auto Motor and Sport in conjunction with UTV and
the University of Heidelberg comprehensively tested
child safety equipment – and only four out
of 14 child safety seats tested met the required
safety standards. One of those that passed with
full marks is the Chicco Synthesis which is available
in South Africa.
Child safety equipment isn't cheap (prices range
from R300 to R1 500) but should you measure your
child's safety in terms of money? The price difference
between various items doesn't necessarily mean
one is safer than another but applies rather to
the ease with which restraints can be carried,
installed and removed.
Various motor manufacturers, such as Mercedes
Benz, BMW, Audi, Saab and Volvo, supply their
own branded child seats and restraints. In Volvos
the child seat forms part of the rear seat.
Some things to consider with regard to children's
safety and comfort in a car
The child seat with the two curved metal hooks
which fit over the backrest of the car seat can't
be regarded as safety equipment. All that keeps
the baby in place is the thin metal frame in front
and the pieces of material through which the legs
are inserted. This can't restrain a mass of up
to 400 kg.
A carrycot should be kept in the boot. Although
there are restraints that allow one to secure
the cot on the rear of the car the child remains
at risk. The cot may be secured but the baby isn't.
In a collision the child may be flung out of the
cot, or be injured because it isn't secured within
the cot.
Safe and comfortable child seats with five-point
fastenings are available. They can be attached
to front or rear passenger seats. To keep the
baby comfortable the seat can be placed in such
a way the child can see its mother.
When buying a child seat or other form of restraint
consider the child's mass rather than age. Buy
the apparatus which can be most firmly anchored
to the car's seat, body or existing seatbelts.
Many older cars don't have proper safety belts
in the rear, only lap belts which fasten around
the hips but not across the shoulder. If you value
your child's safety you'll avoid such cars or
insist on proper seatbelts fitted.
It's preferable not to buy a second-hand child
seat unless you're certain it has never been in
an accident.
Make sure the restraint you buy has a quick-release
function. In an emergency you may need to remove
your child quickly.
Never secure your child with an adult seatbelt.
The belt will stretch across the child's throat,
not the shoulder and chest. In a collision this
could break a child's neck or decapitate him.
There's also a danger of the child slipping out
of the seatbelt if it doesn't fit properly –
use a booster seat together with the seatbelt.
The booster seat fits on top of the seat, allowing
the child to sit higher so the seatbelt fits properly
across the shoulder and chest and allows a view
outside the car.
No individual, and especially not a child, likes
to be fastened to a chair for hours on end. Plan
rest stops during your journey every hour or two
so children can stretch their legs.
Clean seatbelts and other safety equipment with
a warm, soapy sponge. Avoid strong cleaning agents
and solvents.
Finally, if you have an accident, replace the
car's safety belts and airbags and the child seats
and restraints.
YOU, 18 October 2001
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