If you love your children and have a car, you’ll strap them in

CHILDREN bouncing on the back seat; toddlers crawling around unrestrained, and mothers holding their babies in the front seat is often the norm.

Child seat usage might be mandatory for children under the age of three, but parents apparently can’t be bothered – or can’t afford – to strap them in.

Child seat usage in South Africa has been mandatory for children under the age of three since 2015, but observance is low and enforcement sorely lacking.

It might sound harsh, but if you love your children and have a car, you’ll strap them in. And if you can’t afford a child seat, there are organisations willing to help.

Wheel Well, a non-governmrnt organisation (NGO) set up in 2012 to advocate for road safety for children, recently raised concern about child seats made in China but rebranded in South Africa, which have been recalled in Europe because they pose a serious risk to children and other occupants.

Peggie Mars, the founder of Wheel Well, agrees: “We don’t have reliable and up-todate statistics on how many children are affected in crashes in South Africa. The Road Traffic Management Corporation gives stats on crash scenes, not the deaths in hospitals as a result, but it’s believed to be about 30% underreported.”

Last year, the Automobile Association said it had informally observed less than 7% of drivers were putting children into car seats. It has called for stricter enforcement of the law and more compliance among drivers.

“When the law came into effect in July last year, we welcomed the change to the legislation and called on authorities to ensure a wide education and enforcement campaign was launched to ensure infants got the protection the law provided. We are dismayed that too many people are failing to buckle up and protect children in the car,” the AA said at the time.

In many instances, the AA said children were sitting in the front passenger seat without seatbelts, standing in moving vehicles, or not in an age-, weight- and height-appropriate car seat.

Wheel Well runs public education campaigns and reconditions used and donated child seats, which are then supplied to people who can’t afford them.

It’s not only an issue of access to car seats and using them, Mars says. People are simply not using the seats correctly.

“They’re either not appropriate, or not installed correctly so can’t give full benefits in a crash. The biggest problem is with the installation; the seats are not appropriate for weight, height and age, or they offer no side protection.”

Children need to be in the correct seats before they are upgraded. Often they are upgraded too quickly from infant to toddler, and toddler to booster.

“The instruction leaflets for the car seats are hugely problematic, especially the ones from China. They don’t explain proper installation. The issue is also with sales staff – there’s usually a high turnover of staff, and they aren’t properly trained to give that advice.”

Mars says the South African Bureau of Standards does not test car seats any longer, but another agency of the Department of Trade and Industry relies on the higher authority of European safety authorities.

“The National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications (the NRCS, which operates independently of the SABS) issues a certificate based on the European standard (Economic Commission of Europe) ECE certificate, essentially rubber-stamping it. Yet many car seats on our market don’t seem to be ECE-compliant.”

Her advice is if it’s not a known brand, don’t buy it.

To date, Wheel Well has received over 10 000 child seats, but at least 3 000 of them had to be scrapped because they were too old and too dangerous.

I contacted the NRCS for comment, but had received no feedback by deadline.

Mars also sent them queries in August, but has had no response either.

She says of great concern is the fact that three “universal car seats” – the Fine Living (recalled by the ECE), and two toddler seats, which have been rebranded by Chelino, were recalled in May this year, but not in South Africa by the NRCS.

The Fine Living is made by Ganen and Lucky Baby in China.

An ECE member has now also raised concerns about a fourth car seat, which is available here as the Chelino Phantom, after an Allgemeiner Deutscher Automobil-Club (ADAC) crash test video from Germany was publicised in which the LB513 was found to crumble on impact, posing a serious risk to children. But the LB513 won’t be recalled until an official complaint is lodged with the ECE. Imports of the LB513 have stopped, but the HB616, which looks the same, is on the SA market.

The supplier needs to recall the seats, which have the same ECE numbers, from the end-user, she says.

Another concern is that the NRCS last updated its homologation database for certifying child restraints on January 23 2014.

• To donate a car seat, visit Wheel Well at Brightwater Commons. Their website www.wheelwell.co.za also lists drop off points.