Introduction:
The World Health Organization has made some very important findings with regards to child safety in the Global Status Report on Road Safety 2015. The report includes a special focus on Child Safety and Child Restraint Use.
To summarize some of these findings:
- Eighty-four countries have enacted laws preventing children sitting in the front of the vehicle – most such laws restrict children from sitting in the front if they are under a certain age (usually between 10 and 12 years) or under a specific height (usually between 135 and150 cm).
- Legislation mandating the use of child restraints can be an effective way to increase the use of restraints and reduce injuries.
- While 96 countries have a child restraint law of some type, only 85 countries base this law on age, weight or height - an important factor in achieving effectiveness.
- Most high-income countries have such a law while only a third of low- and middle-income countries base their child restraint law on one or more of these criteria.
- Child restraint laws are notably lacking in some regions of the world: only one country in the South-East Asia Region – Timor Leste – and countries/ areas in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and the West Bank and Gaza Strip) have child restraints laws.
Child Car Seats in South Africa
At the time data collection in 2013 South Africa did not have effective Legislation on Child Seats and we are pleased to confirm that this has since been rectified.
The Global Status Report on Road Safety emphasizes the need for increased compliance. The incorrect fitment of these restraints compromises the effectiveness of the child restraint system.
In the Report we also find the following very important finding:
“The cost of child restraints can also be prohibitive to many families and may be a challenge to the effectiveness of legislation.”
It is with this in mind that corporate South Africa through the sterling work of especially Imperial has focused much energy and resources into making more child seats available.
Public private partnerships are essential to making roads safer in South Africa.
We would like to share some information on how Imperial has helped thousands of South African parents to protect their children inside their vehicles.
Imperial making Car Seats available:
- The Car Seats for Kids Campaign Launched in October 2012, in partnership with Wheel Well.
- The aim of the Car Seat for Kids campaign was to create stronger awareness around the importance of correctly securing children in a vehicle when travelling as well as to create a stronger understanding of the correct way in which this should be done. In addition, a key objective was to collect as many used car seats as possible – through donations – so that these can be restored, checked and supplied to less privileged families.
- The campaign runs every October – in support of Transport Month
- For the past 3 years, the campaign was driven within the Gauteng area
- This year (2015) Imperial took the campaign to Cape Town and elevated the opportunity for consumers to donate their car seats by partnering with Hyundai, Kia and Renault dealers in South Africa – in addition to the mall activations and drop off points.
- In addition, the Western Cape Department of Transport and Public Works partnered with Imperial this year, and stood testament to the dire need for road safety in the country
- The mock road block – an Imperial concept through their partner Active Education – will take place this year on the 3rd of November
- Over the past 4 years, to date, the Car Seats for Kids campaign has garnered 7500 car seats (varying types)
IMPERIAL I-Pledge "Car seat for Kids" campaign
With hundreds of motor vehicle fatalities every month, the importance of strapping a child into a car seat is a stark and harsh reality. All drivers who did not have children strapped into a car seat were pulled over by the Ekurhuleni Metro Police Department Officers and explained the importance of using car seats and seat-belts for children.
Conclusion
We would like to acknowledge the brilliant work done by Imperial and other corporates as well as NGO’s such as Wheel Well, Drive More Safely etc. in the efforts to create safety awareness and assist South African motorists to keep their precious cargo safe!
KFM and Imperial challenged citizens to help us keep our most precious road users safe! With these contributions it was possible to collect more than 500 car seats!
Also view:
Child Restraints and Road Safety
Child Car Seats and Legislation in South Africa
