Do you give into your child when she refuses to sit in a car seat?
By Pamela Bosworth – Mommies Magazine (www.magazine.mommies.co.za)

After reading this article, you would more than likely hear her screams of anger than her screams of pain.

In the event of an accident occurring with non-seatbelt wearers, an occupant is likely to be flung from the vehicle, increasing their chances of death by 4 times! They are also 14 times more likely to suffer from cervical spine injuries, not to mention all the other serious injuries that could occur in the case of an accident.

A shocking 84% of children in South Africa travel without seat belts. With an accident rating as high as ours, you would think that it would be common knowledge to restrain not only yourself, but the passengers who depend on you, like our children. Children are not responsible enough to make these kinds of decisions for themselves; they rely on us adults to think for them in situations like this.

At the Red Cross Children’s hospital alone, approximately 20 children per month are treated for injuries sustained in motor vehicle accidents. 80% of these children were not restrained in any way at all. This is at one hospital, in one province, in one month alone! Take that number and multiply it by the number of hospitals around our country and see if those monthly statistics don’t scare you a little more. Motor vehicle accidents are as common as tripping over a shoe lying around your house. Most of us have been involved in at least one car accident in our lifetime, maybe not all serious, but to an unrestrained child it could be life threatening.

If the vehicle comes to a sudden stop, at 25km per hour an unrestrained small child can be killed if its head hits the interior of the car or a windscreen. At 40km per hour, the blow to a child’s head is the same as dropping him from 6 meters onto a concrete floor.

The back seat, for obvious reasons, is the safest part of the vehicle. Recent research shows that all children under the age of 15 should be travelling in the back seat. This will reduce the risk of death by 30%. If they travel in the front of a car they are 40% more likely to be injured during a motor vehicle accident.

Children between the age of 4 and 10 should be in a booster seat. A booster seat heightens the child to a level where the normal seat belt will fit properly. Vehicle seats and belts are designed for adult bodies. For children who have outgrown a car seat (age 4), a booster seat is needed to keep the lap belt on the upper thighs and the shoulder belt centered on the shoulder and chest. Placing your child in a booster seat will reduce the risk of injury by 59%.

Babies should be in an age appropriate car seat. They should not be held at any time, even if it’s just for a short distance. This will be increasing their risk of death drastically! Mom’s lap is normally the most popular place for a baby to be held, but this is the most unsafe place in the car. In a collision, a mothers’ weight could seriously injure or even kill the baby against the dashboard or windshield.

Research shows that passengers have less than half a second to react in a collision. When a vehicle collides or suddenly stops at 50-60km per hour the weight of occupants or objects in the vehicle multiply 30 - 60 fold. If a baby weighs 10kg the force at the moment of impact is equivalent to a weight of 300kg. No adult, no matter how strong, will be able to hold onto the baby or child. They would be thrown about inside the vehicle, injuring themselves and quite possibly seriously injuring (or even killing) anyone else inside the vehicle. They are also likely to be ejected from the car through one of the windows.

Letting your child travel unrestrained from now on is not a risk worth taking. Putting the thought aside, will not save their lives, taking action will! What our children want and what is best for them might be two totally different things and you as a parent need to discern between the two.