Saudi Arabia to make car seats mandatory before newborns allowed to leave hospital
Road accidents first cause of death among babies, children and teenagers in kingdom
Abu Dhabi: Saudi Arabia is set to make it conditional that parents have a car seat before newborns are discharged from hospital.
The Saudi National Family Safety Programme, with the support of the Health Affairs of the Ministry of National Guards, plans to develop a mechanism to be applied in all hospitals affiliated to the Ministry of Health.The move comes as part of the awareness campaign for child safety launched by the Family Safety Programme under the title ‘Child Seat First’ to educate parents about child safety in vehicles and reduce child injuries caused by car accidents, Dr. Sarah Siraj Abed, regional director of the National Family Safety Programme in the Western Region, told Okaz newspaper.
Traffic accidents are first cause of death of babies below one year of age with 70 per cent of the total deaths of 10,200.
They come in second place as a cause of death of children in the age group from 5 to 14 years, by 20-30 per cent. And they come as the first cause of death of teenagers in the age group of 15 to 18 years, according to official statistics.