Ballito mom’s child car seat plea

Horrified by the two recent North Coast accidents claiming the lives of unrestrained babies and toddlers, a Ballito mom decided to launch a car seat drive to help save young lives.

Despite it being illegal to have an unrestrained child under the age of three travelling in a car and Arrive Alive studies showing that correctly installed child safety seats can reduce the need for hospitalisation by 69% after a road crash, people are still taking chances.

Yolanda Cronje said it freaks her out when she sees children jumping around inside cars.

“Car seats save lives. It really breaks my heart when I read articles about babies or toddlers dying in accidents because they were not strapped into their car seat.

“You can be the safest driver in the world, but you cannot control the other drivers and if something happens to your unrestrained child, you will have to live with that guilt,” said Cronje, who is the mother of a three-year-old boy called Matthew and owner of the Ballito based Baby2Baby store selling pre-loved baby items.

“I completely understand that car seats are expensive and that parents are on a tight budget, which is why I want to help those parents with this limited time only car seat drive.”

While Cronje’s entry level car seats usually start from R550, she has reduced the price of all of her car seats to R200 from July 5 – 16 to give penny-pinching parents the chance to give their child the car safety they deserve.

“I currently have ten rear facing car seats (up to age two), two forward facing car seats (age two up to minimum five years) and four toddler car seats.

“I am happy to help parents install the seat and teach them the do’s and don’ts of car seat safety.”

If you would like to donate any car seats to Yolanda for this car seat drive, contact her at 083 954 4479 or send a mail to baby2babyshop@gmail.com

Why Buckle up?

• It is not safe to carry your baby in your arms or a child on your lap in the car. Some parents believe they will be able to hold on to the baby or child. Research has shown that passengers have less than half a second to react in a collision or sudden stop. When a vehicle collides or suddenly stops at 50-60km per hour the weight of occupants or objects in the vehicle multiplies 30 – 60 fold. If a baby weighs 10kg the force at the moment of impact is equivalent to a weight of 300kg. No adult 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 thrown from the car through one of the windows.

• At 25km/hour a small child sitting or standing next to the driver can be killed in an emergency stop if its head hits the windscreen/interior of the car.
• At 40km/hour the blow to a child’s head is the same as dropping him/her from 6 meters onto concrete.
  *Source: Arrive Alive

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