You’re safe, so why isn’t your child?
Road accidents happen almost every day in the UAE and you want to make sure that your passengers are safe, especially if they are children. Last year, the UAE issued a law ensuring that backseat passengers wore their seatbelts and over 140 motorists last year alone were arrested for violating the rule. Legally, children under the age of 10 must also be buckled into a child safety seat.
The managing director of Road Safety UAE, Thomas Edelman, said that residents struggled to adapt to the law. “Some of the reasons we heard were ‘my kids don’t like buckling up’, ‘I am a safe driver so my children don’t need to wear seatbelts in the back seat’ or ‘I am only driving a short distance so they don’t have to put a seatbelt on’,” he said.
Dubai Police also weighed in and tweeted on Friday that “the back seat is the safest place for children to sit”.
Statistically,
- Wearing a seatbelt in the back seat decreases the risk of death by one third.
- Passengers in the front seat are at a far greater risk of injury.
- Rear-seated passengers have 60 per cent more protection in side impact collisions.
- Studies repeatedly suggest the risk of injury becomes equal to those of an adult person after the age of thirteen.
Even though your children may look fully-formed on the outside, their insides are not and cannot withstand the impact of airbags like adults can.