You should play with your kids, not their lives
Denysschen said the chances of a child who was unrestrained surviving an accident were very slim
LYDENBURG – Did you know that even travelling short distances with your baby or toddler standing or sitting on your lap could be fatal in the case of an accident? However, an astonishing number of parents allow their children to travel in vehicles without being properly restrained, placing their lives and safety at risk.
Daily, toddlers can be seen standing on the front and back seats, hanging out of windows and sitting on passenger’s laps, while babies are being held in their mothers arms. According to André Denysschen, Netcare 911 operations coordinator for Eastern Limb OPS and Glencore Lydenburg Smelter, the child whom you are holding, literally becomes your airbag.
“Even if you travel at a speed of just 60 kilometres per hour, a child who is not wearing a seat belt or is not restrained in a car seat, would be thrown forward with a force of 30 to 60 times their body weight. In a crash, the child could be crushed between your body and the vehicle’s dashboard. Even if you are using a safety belt, the child will be torn from your arms. You would not be able to hold onto them, no matter how hard you try. An unrestrained child standing on the front seat would be ejected through the windscreen.”
He said the force of a deploying airbag should not be taken lightly. “A couple of years ago in America, a firefighter was attending to a patient in a car when the airbag deployed. It snapped his neck and instantly killed him. Even I am weary of an airbag. I have been in an accident and it gave me a black eye. Now imagine if your baby or child has to endure the same impact.”
Denysschen said the chances of a child who was unrestrained surviving an accident were very slim. “That child will end up with head, neck, internal injuries and fractures. When we do mechanisms of injury where an accident occurred, we look at what happened during the accident and what injuries were sustained. There is tremendous power at play when an accident takes place.”
According to the Road Safety Authority, recent statistics show that over twice as many children were killed on the roads in 2014 compared to 2013. A total of 262 children lost their lives on the roads from 1996 to 2012 while 1 107 children were seriously injured. The possibility of children being killed on the road between 16:00 and 18:00 is greater, with Friday being the high-risk day of the week. In almost one-third of these child-passenger fatalities, no child was restrained nor were seat belts used.”
Unrestrained children will be thrown about inside the vehicle, injuring themselves and, quite possibly, seriously injuring or even killing other people inside the vehicle. They are also likely to be ejected from the car through one of the windows. Denysschen said that when you were involved in a crash, you actually experienced three accidents.
“Your first collision is with another vehicle, wall or any other object. That is the impact experienced when you are being restrained with a safety belt. The second is your skeleton being forced forward on impact and the third is your intestines and brain pushing against your skeleton after the impact.”
The amendment of the National Road Traffic Act, which came into effect on May 1, 2015 made the use of car seats for children under the age of three compulsory and motorists who do not strap toddlers in can expect to be fined. Kids who have outgrown a convertible safety seat should use a booster seat until they are at least 1,3 metres tall. Children who are tall enough to wear an adult seat belt should still ride in the back seat until they are 13 years old.
