Ras Al Khaimah: Car safety experts have praised the actions of a mother whose baby survived a serious car crash which saw the vehicle spin out of control and turn upside down.
The five-month-old child was strapped into a child safety seat in the back of the car, sparing him serious injury.
Child safety experts say this is an example for parents to follow.
For Lesley Cully, founder of Buckle Up In the Back, a non-profit safety awareness campaign in the UAE, parents don’t need to wait until emergencies hit before acting.
“We have to prepare in any case of emergency and in this case the mother prepared and protected her child.
“She is a primary example for all the parents out there. Thank goodness they’re safe. If she didn’t do that, it would have probably ended up differently,” Cully told Gulf News.
“We all need to take responsibility. For example, when we go out to groceries and buy eggs, we take care not to break them when we get into our cars. All the more we should be doing it for ourselves and our kids who are most precious to us. Eggs can be replaced, our kids cannot,” Cully said.
The Emirati mother and child were saved by Ras Al Khaimah Civil Defence after she lost control of her car and it turned upside down on Tuesday morning at around 11am, an official at RAK Civil Defence told Gulf News.
According to the official, the accident happened when the mother tried to overtake on a curved stretch of road but lost control, causing the car to spin.
Rescue teams arrived at the scene and freed the mother and baby from the car — the little boy was taken from the crashed vehicle still safe in his car seat.
Mum and baby were then transfered to Saqr Hospital — both were unharmed in the incident.
In May, Gulf News reported that traffic accidents are the leading cause of death among infants, while 63 per cent of deaths of children aged 14 and under in the UAE were also due to traffic accidents as per figures from Dubai Health Authority.
The percentage is more than double the global average of child fatalities caused by vehicles — pegged at 22.3 per cent.
A recent 999 Magazine survey that polled 1,300 readers said that almost all UAE residents are aware that driving without a seat belt is dangerous but some do so anyway.
Another top road safety problem was not using child seats, the magazine reported.
“Cases such as these only emphasise the importance of having kids safely strapped into car seats,” Souad Al Merri, Media Supervisor for Sharjah Ladies Club and organiser of the Child Safety - Car Seats campaign in April, told Gulf News.
She added: “As for what had happened, we’re very happy to hear that both of them are safe.
“This is a huge fact and an example that everyone should follow in this day and age.
“Physically, babies and children are very tiny and they need extra care. So car seats protect them from any force of impact when there’s an accident.”
Souad said that it is important to change bad driving habits and that it is a matter of conditioning.
In Sharjah, for example, they distributed free car seats in April to parents and their newborns to develop the habit of placing babies in car seats the first day they step out of hospital.
As a result of their campaign in April this year, Souad said the Ministry of Interior announced that all children at the back must be strapped in car seats.
But this directive needs more awareness and strict enforcement, Souad said.
