Traveling with your family for a vacation or a leisure trip can be a fulfilling experience. But do you know that according to the data released by the Transport Research Wing of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), the child fatality rate involving car accidents has risen to about 12% in the last 5 years or so? In simpler terms, almost 31 children are killed in road accidents daily. The sad part is that almost 90% of the cases involving accidents could have been avoided if the road safety provisions were adopted. There is an urgent need to educate our motorists and parents about how to transport their children safely in a vehicle. Here are some golden rules and car child safety tips that you must follow, as a parent or a person carrying a young passenger, must follow.
“goodncrazy kids back of new minivan chrysler town & country” by GoodNCrazy is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
1. Follow safety to the T!
This is something that you should not avoid at all cost, your child must be buckled up appropriately in a car. No matter if he is sitting on a baby seat or a normal seat. In most cases, it has been observed that the seat belts are applied without proper adjustment. An improperly applied seat belt is as good as not having applied at all. You must ensure that the seat belt height is adjusted properly and has been fastened according to the weight of your child. The neck rest should also be adjusted to the height, in order to prevent any whiplash incidents. In some cars, they have an airbag inserted inside the seatbelts, make sure you follow the manufacturer’s instructions for a younger passenger. Also as a diver, you must drive slower than usual, keeping a good eye on the road.
2. Child safety for toddlers in the car
Child safety seats or booster seats are a must if you have a toddler or a child below the age of seven years and an important one among the car child safety tips. In modern cars, provisions such as ISOFIX anchoring points are provided to securely fix the seat in your car. Through ISOFIX, the seat becomes a part of the car’s restraining system and hence provides maximum security. There are many types of child seats such as front-facing, back-facing, front-seat booster, etc. For most of the cars having curtain airbags, you must place the child seat into the designated area only to prevent any injury to your child.
3. Child safety for younger kids in the car
Again the golden rule, in this case, is that you must always encourage your young one to sit in the rear of the car. Several data have shown that a child of young age is best suited at the rear of the car. Secondly, he/she must always wear a seatbelt. In the case of children, it might be difficult to pursue them, but you have to learn the art of making them understand the importance of the seatbelt. If your child is older than 12 years, then he/she can be allowed to travel at the front, but you must turn off the passenger-side airbag as specified by the car’s manufacturer. In more modern cars, this is done automatically, according to the weight placed on the passenger seat.
4. Things not to do while traveling with a child
In the present world, where we are constantly surrounded by social media trends, it is hard for many not to be influenced by them. But sadly, social media has no censorship and as a result, many dangerous trends have become mainstream in public. Trends like underage children driving high-power cars or the parents encouraging their children to stick their heads out of the sunroof are some of them. According to a report, these accidents related to the trends are on the rise and contributed to about 5% of total fatalities last year. In this case, it is the responsibility of the parent to discourage their children from these trends. Recently, the Honorable High Court of Delhi has also ruled that in case an underage driver causes death or accident, then parents will be held vicariously liable.
Conclusion
So these were the important car child safety tips. Today, modern cars have become safer no doubt and the safety score for a child in an impact test has gone through the roof. But we should always remember that we cannot always win against our good old physics. No matter how safe the car is, it is the duty of the driver to drive safely and follow all-important instructions related to child safety. Lastly, a child should only be handed the keys to a car when he has obtained his license along with proper training.
