Driving home the safety message

When my son turned five, he was charged with the responsibility of climbing into his car booster seat; and he was happy to do so. He enjoyed buckling himself in while I adjusted the harness straps when necessary.

But the compliance was short-lived. It did not take him long to start complaining that he was feeling constrained, that he couldn't lean out and check the car that zoomed past us, that he could not move around freely... The car seat battle had begun and I was not willing to lose it.

At the age of seven, he started trying to convince me that he belonged in a regular seat. "I'm a big boy now. I can sit on the BIG seat," he'd complain even as he strapped himself into the booster seat rather unwillingly. After hearing him repeat this a few times, I began to wonder if he was right. He looked big enough to sit comfortably in a regular car seat. So was he ready to graduate from the safety of his booster seat to a car seat?

His words also made me think probably I was being overly protective. Maybe it was time to relax the rules I had set regarding the car seat. But it just didn't feel right. I wasn't prepared to change anything until I was sure what I was doing was right. So I told him firmly that no, it was not yet time to move into the regular seat. It turned out I was right.

"Many scientific studies around the world have established that child safety seats are 71 per cent effective for infants, and 54 per cent effective for toddlers in preventing childhood fatalities that are attributable to car crashes," says Dr Jens Thomsen, section head, Occupational and Environmental Health, Public Health and Research Department, Health Authority-Abu Dhabi (HAAD). "They are 67 per cent effective in preventing childhood road traffic injuries requiring hospitalisation. It is a fact that 83 per cent of restrained children remain uninjured in accidents and it can reduce serious and fatal injuries by more than half if they are placed in age-appropriate child seats or booster seats."

Promoting safety

To protect children HAAD is working on many programmes to popularise the use of child safety seats. "We are developing some programmes to promote the use of car safety seats as we consider this to be an important health issue," says Dr Thomsen. "We are working with our partners, the main public hospitals in Abu Dhabi. Eventually this may be extended to private hospitals too."

HAAD has identified a number of main public hospitals in three regions of Abu Dhabi to distribute 2,500 child car safety seats to parents of newborns in the maternity wards.

"This was done previously in some hospitals like Mafraq. The exercise is currently ongoing at the Corniche Hospital. We are now planning to do the same for other hospitals too. HAAD purchased the car safety seats from a recognised brand," he says.

The programme involves not just distributing child safety seats, but also training nurses in maternity wards and neonatology departments in these hospitals to inform and educate parents about the importance of child safety seats. "The idea is to train parents as well, not just hand out the seats," says Dr Thomsen. "They need to be educated and become familiar with the concept as we feel it is the lack of knowledge that is the reason for this sorry state.

"We will also provide educational material like brochures, fliers, and DVDs with videos showing how to install the seat in cars."

In addition to the hospital campaign HAAD is planning a community outreach programme. "On a wider scale we will develop a mass media campaign that will accompany this initiative," says Dr Thomsen. "We will have key messages in the print and electronic media, bolstered with roadside banners and email campaigns. It will be a full-scale initiative meant to educate and communicate the key message to a wider audience and the community at large."

HAAD is still in the process of finalising the details of the campaign.

"We have already purchased the seats and are having the initial planning meetings with the hospitals," says Dr Thomsen. "The programme should be in place within a couple of months. We'd like to start before the summer break."

The campaign in the hospitals will run for about two and a half months. "We have arranged for the training of the nurses who will be nominated by the hospitals. The content of the training will range from a broad introduction to the topic to some statistical facts on child traffic injuries and the importance and magnitude of the problem as well as the effectiveness of safety seats and their cost effectiveness."

The economic cost of not using a child safety seat is one that Dr Thomsen takes pains to emphasise. "On every dirham spent on a car seat you can expect a cost-saving of Dh29 for society as a whole. So, there is a return on the expenditure if you want to look at it that way. This is calculated in terms of less injuries, less health care costs, and other indirect costs to the economy and society."

While HAAD is trying to handle the problem at a societal level, the government is also at work tackling the problem legally. "Legislation is being developed because car safety seats are not yet mandated by law," says Dr Thomsen. "We want to encourage the community to go out and buy car safety seats for their own children."

A shared responsibility

The question is whether such programmes should be sponsored or not. "When we look at other countries, the common practice is that the community, the parents themselves, are expected to buy the seats," points out Dr Thomsen.

"We aim for sustainable solutions so we can't expect the government to sponsor child safety seats for ever. This campaign is for a limited period of time and is expected to trigger a response, precipitate a discussion in the target audience to make them realise that they have a responsibility too towards their children, and society. That's where the media campaign comes in.

"Imagine, compared to the relatively high cost of a car, the safety seat costs a few hundred dirhams. So why take a risk? The cost is very reasonable, and the benefits are not only to the family but to society as a whole, especially the health sector."

By the way …

To restrain or not to restrain?

• In many countries the law stipulates that all children under the age of six should be properly restrained while riding in a vehicle.
• Children up to the age of three must be secured in a separate safety seat or a vehicle's integrated safety seat. Those aged between four and five must be restrained in either a safety seat or a vehicle safety belt.
• The driver is responsible for buckling up the child.

A UAE University study on traffic injury prevention in 2008 showed that 98 per cent of children travelling in cars were not restrained by a seat belt or a child safety seat. "They travel frequently, and in this case illegally, in the front seat," says Dr Thomsen. In the UAE it is illegal for a child below the age of ten to travel in a front seat.

This disregard for the law results in the high number of child fatalities. "We know from statistics that for every child killed in a road traffic accident there are approximately 171 cases of non-fatal injuries. So, the ratio is 1:171. It's just the tip of the iceberg.''

HAAD has been involved in educating the driving community about the dangers of not buckling up. "Two years ago we launched the ‘Drive safe, save lives' road safety campaign focused on speeding and seat belt use and the main target audience was young males, spearheaded by popular rally driver and role model Shaikh Khalid Al Qassimi," says Dr Thomsen.

Another topic HAAD wants to focus on is child pedestrian safety for which they are in the process of developing a programme.

Schools will be a target for HAAD's message. "Important concepts need to be integrated into the curriculum, and there are sub-committees working on that," says Dr Thomsen. The focus is on getting them young. "We'll target them with other initiatives for a comprehensive Abu Dhabi road safety strategy, which will include driving licence applicants and schoolchildren."

Dr Thomsen is very disturbed that 63 per cent of the children who die in the UAE due to injuries are a result of road traffic injuries - a very high number. "It's not just about major accidents, it can be the small crashes which can prove lethal due to not strapping children in," says Dr Reem Al Ameria, senior officer, Health Promotion section, HAAD.

Dr Thomsen has a simple message: "Buckle up. Finally, that is the only solution."

http://www.haad.ae/