The Need for Seatbelts and Child Restraints

Buckle up the kids, it may save their lives

Emer-G-Med paramedics witness numerous accidents where children are seriously injured or killed as a result of not being safely strapped in a child seat or seatbelts. This past weekend a 25 month old boy was ejected from a vehicle after it was involved in a rollover. Sadly the boy succumbed to his injures on impact and there was nothing paramedics could do to save him.

Emer-G-Med - Angels have put together this safety feature on the importance of buckling up the right way on every ride as it is the single most important thing a family can do to stay safe in the car. It is a well-known fact that the chance of survival in a collision increases dramatically for an adult or child using a seat belt or child restraint. To not insist on the wearing of seatbelts is a form of neglect; a driver is responsible for ensuring that every person in the vehicle is wearing a seatbelt.

Seat belts and child restraints protect against ejection; one study found that 75% of all ejected vehicle occupants in a crash die as a result. Children's bodies are different to those of adults; for instance, rather than break - like an adult's, a child's ribs are more likely to bend, meaning the force of a collision impacts directly on the lungs and heart. This is why a special child restraint system is crucial.

In his capacity as president of Childsafe and head of the trauma unit at the Children's Red Cross Hospital, Professor Sebastian van As presented some concerning facts about the numbers of children treated at this hospital as a result of not wearing seat belts whilst travelling.

Traffic accidents account for 32%s of child deaths, making it one of the top three factors affecting child mortality. Annually, the hospital treats close to 300 children who were involved in motor vehicle accidents as passengers. Nearly 90% of those children were not strapped in properly in the vehicle.

What is clear from the professor's presentation is that most of the drivers of cars with children in them either do not know what the National Road Traffic Act say regarding child seats and seat belts, or simply do not care.

Children are especially vulnerable because their safety is in the hands of the adult driver and passengers. You must buckle up your children at every opportunity whether they are two or 22 years old.

Professor von As said that if an accident happens and a child is thrown out of the car, there is a 75 percent chance that the child will die. "Trauma kills more people under the age of 18 than any disease and the children most severely injured are from motor vehicle accidents. The majority killed are pedestrians, but the second biggest numbers are those children thrown out of the car," he said.

The actions of rear seat passengers can affect both injuries that they themselves might incur and those that may be sustained by the driver or front seat passenger. An unrestrained rear seat passenger poses a serious threat to any restrained person seated directly ahead of them.

A belted occupant will be kept in their seat and thus will reduce speed at the same rate as the car, so that the mechanical energy to which the body is exposed will be greatly reduced. Thus the use of seat-belts by rear seat passengers could not only reduce the likelihood and severity of injury to themselves, but also to drivers and front seat passengers.

Von As said: "Children that are loose in the car are usually thrown and they become like missiles. If a child is in the back seat and the car has a collision travelling at 80km/h, when the car comes to a stop the child becomes a projectile that can even decapitate the people sitting in the front seat."

He was equally vehement about the dangers of simply holding children on an adult's lap.

"Often parents are under the impression that it is okay for the child to be on their lap or held in their arms, but this is useless in an accident because of the huge forces (of gravity) that are involved," add Von As.
The seat-belt is the single most effective feature in a vehicle to reduce the severity of injury to the vehicle occupants that results from road traffic crashes.

Understanding the way Seatbelts and Child Restraints / Baby Seats work

Seat-belts and child restraints are secondary safety devices and are primarily designed to prevent or minimise injury to a vehicle occupant when a crash has occurred. Seat-belts and child restraints thus:
• reduce the risk of contact with the interior of the vehicle or reduce the severity of injuries if this occurs;
• distribute the forces of a crash over the strongest parts of the human body;
• prevent the occupant from being ejected from the vehicle in an impact;
• prevent injury to other occupants (for example in a frontal crash, unbelted rear-seated passengers can be catapulted forward and hit other occupants).

Wear the Seat Belt Correctly

"Properly worn" means with both straps snugly fitted to transfer the impact of the collision to the parts of your body that can take it - your hipbones and shoulder bones. With just the shoulder strap on, you can still slide out from under it and be strangled, while the lap belt alone doesn't keep your face from hitting the steering wheel.

Tips on Travelling with Babies and Children

By adhering to the following tips may you never have to say "If only…" Remember that life is precious and your child is irreplaceable

• Children under the age of five years are most vulnerable to injuries. Therefore the responsibility of creating a safe environment for a small child lies with parents and caregivers.
• Be aware of your child’s different developmental stages. At certain stages children are prone to certain injuries.
• Children should be buckled up from his /her first ride in an approved child car seat, if not they will be seriously injured or die if the vehicle in which they are travelling is involved in a collision. Always buckle your child up even if you are only travelling short distances or at a low speed.
• Never travel with a baby on your lap or lying loose on the seat – this is very dangerous, and is a great threat to your baby’s life and health. Should a collision occur, he or she will be thrown against the dashboard or through the windscreen.
• There are a variety of excellent rear-facing and front-facing child-seats on the market. Child-seats should be SABS approved and appropriate to the child’s age, weight, build and stage of development. It is important to install the restraint according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
• Never place a front-facing child-seat in the front passenger seat if your vehicle is fitted with air-bags. When the air-bag is released on impact your baby or child may be suffocated by it.
• Never let your child share your seatbelt because if you are involved in a collision he/she will be crushed between your body and the seatbelt.
• A carrycot is not a child restraint. A collision will cause the carrycot to be flung around inside the vehicle, injuring the child as well as other passengers.
• Seat belts and child restraints also serve as a restraining device against boisterous youngsters, who may distract the driver.
• Your child should not be given the choice of whether or not to use a child restraint. It is the responsibility and legal obligation of the driver to ensure that children are buckled up.
• Regularly check that the straps that secure the child-seat into your vehicle have not worked themselves loose.

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Sources:
http://www.arrivealive.co.za/pages.aspx?i=2877
http://www.arrivealive.co.za/pages.aspx?i=725
http://www.westerncape.gov.za/eng/pubs/news/2011/dec/235452
http://www.kzntransport.gov.za/rd_safety/safety_tips/seatbelt.htm