WHY YOU MUST USE A CHILD RESTRAINT 2
Last week, I told you that most parents irrespective of status, sex or religion still do not see any sense in protecting their children while driving by res training them. Most drive their children unrestrained. Some lap them. Others leave them unattended in moving vehicles. Some claim that strapping these kids in a car seat is alien. These groups maintain that strapping children in a car is meant for the ‘oyibo’ (whiteman), not a blackman. Others say the cost for a car seat is high even though the cheapest among these cars cost as low as 1,000,000 naira while others go for as high as 5million naira, compared to car seats which range from just about 35,000 naira for the protection of the life of God’s precious gift. Yet, these same parents would not mind hanging out with friends and business partners to spend thousands on drinks, pepper soup and other extras. The female ones would prefer spending thousands of naira on designer shoes and bags, but not on the safety of their children. Generally, parents ignore the truth that road safety crisis is the leading cause of preventable death; the 3rd largest cause of disabilities. In Africa, it is the 2nd largest cause of death after HIV/Aids. These deaths, according to a study, are caused mostly by human error and vehicle factors that include the following; over-speeding, dangerous overtaking, alcohol and drug abuse, negligence of drivers, poor driving standards, overloaded people or goods vehicles, poor tyre maintenance, burst tyre, bad roads and hilly terrain, negligence of pedestrians, distraction of drivers by passengers, and cell phone use among others. Road traffic injuries alone are the leading cause of death among children 15-19years and the second leading cause among 10-14 years old. These injuries are not inevitable. They are preventable. Ironic ally most parents are not concerned, going by their actions behind the wheels. Despite these behaviors, Global concern on child safety stresses the need for strategies to ,’’reduce child injuries due to accidents or other causes through the development and implantation of appropriate measures such as child restraints. This is why we must emulate safe practices.In the United kingdom, for instance, the authorities were alarmed by what it described as “disastrous” figures for 2006 vulnerable road users particularly children. Statistics in that year showed big increase in death among child pedestrians (up 13%) and child pedal cyclist (up 55%) as a well as a five percent jump in motorcycle (okada) fatalities. Last year 2016,there was a 4% increase in deaths; a highest level since 2011 when total deaths was 1901 to 1792 in 2011. Today, Britains child pedestrian safety record is worse than the average in Europe in spite of the increase tightening of strict measures to tilt the road crash record. Even when the figures decline slightly or otherwise, emphasis is always placed on the need for the appropriate intervention to curtain avoidable deaths. The picture with respect to child safety is not different in Nigeria as the cases cited last week are pointers on the trend Motor crashes remain the leading cause of unintentional injury related deaths among children ages 14 and under. However, the wearing of seatbelts could prevent many of these deaths and serious injuries. Thus, over the last 25years, it is conservatively estimated that in highly motorized countries about 310,000 fatalities and more that 9million moderate to critical injuries have been prevented through wearing of seatbelts. Even in a safety conscious country such as the United State of America, it is recorded that in the year 2003 more that 7000 lives were lost and over 140,000 people injured unnecessary because they failed to wear their seatbelts.In 2015,22,441 passenger vehicle occupants died out of which more than half52%-59% of teens (13-19years) and adults aged 20-44years who died were unrestrained as at the time of the crash. Seat belts of course, do not prevent an accident-taking place. They do however play a crucial role in reducing the severity of injury to vehicle occupants involved in an accident. Vehicle safety features are distinguished by two categories; “primary safety and secondary safety”. Primary safety features aim to prevent an accident taking place e.g. Good breaks, tyres. Secondary safety features aim to prevent or minimize injury to a vehicle occupant once the accident has occur. Seatbelts are a secondary safety device with a number of objectives which includes; preventing ejection from the vehicle in an impact, reducing the risk of contact with the interior of the vehicle or reducing the speed of such impacts, providing a distributed force to the wearer to give the necessary support in an accident restraining the vehicle occupant before guiding them back into their seats. The effectiveness of the use of seat belts is no longer in doubt as studies conducted throughout the world since the 1950’s have shown conclusively that seatbelt when worn and fitted correctly, save lives. Users of safety belts sustain approximately 35percent less ‘major-fatal’ grade injuries than did non-users. Another study by nordisk trafiksikker hedsrad (1984) calculated that ‘drivers and front seat passengers who do not use seatbelts suffer almost the same percentage of head injuries as non-users in rear seats’. Therefore, use of seatbelt by rear seat passengers could not only reduce the likelihood and severity of injury to themselves, but also to drivers and/or front seat passengers.