Buckle up

When on a road trip, do you tuck your child in a seat designed specifically for them or make them sit on your lap? While most people are wont to choose the latter, it can be dangerous in the event of an accident. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, over 2,700 children below the age of 14 died in road accidents in 2020.

"In a number of crashes, where children are inside the vehicle, they've been severely injured or at times, killed. They either get thrown out of the vehicle because they are not restrained or end up interacting with the body of the vehicle, resulting in massive injuries that are often fatal," says Piyush Tewari, founder of SaveLIFE Foundation, a non-for-profit organisation that works towards improving road safety. Tewari says that these observations during forensic crash investigations highlight that it is critical to have a child restraint system (CRS) in vehicles.

Educating parents and creating awareness about road safety is the first step towards ensuring safety for children, feel experts. Pic/Getty Images

CRS is a device that is designed to protect and restrain the movement of an infant or child while travelling. Recently, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) issued guidelines making it mandatory for airlines to have such a system in place.

Experts feel that similar guidelines should be adopted across other modes of transportation, mainly roadways. The railways doesn't have seating guidelines for children on outstation trains, according to a Railways source. "[But] it's required in case of sudden jerks or any turbulence [on board a plane]. Keeping them [children] on your lap is not going to protect them the way a CRS does," says Akhilesh Srivastava, who is a project head, Road Safety 2.0, a flagship project of the World Economic Forum's Global Road Safety Initiative (GRSI) to improve road safety by leveraging the power of technology.

Akhilesh Srivastava, Shuja-ul-haq and Piyush Tewari

In 2019, the government passed the Motor Vehicles Amendment Act, 2019 that mandated that every child be secured by a seatbelt or a CRS, failing which a penalty of Rs 1,000 would be imposed. Despite the provisions being in place, violations continue. "There is a lack of enforcement mechanisms, which leads to people taking the rules lightly, even if it is a direct threat to their life," points out Srivastava. But the bigger issue, he feels, is the lack of awareness. He mentioned how countries like the US have a rule where children below the age of 13 and under 30 kg are not allowed to sit in the front seat. "Educating parents and school-going children about road safety should be made compulsory. If they learn about road safety as a part of their school curriculum, they would be able to make informed choices."

Earlier this month, on February 15, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) amended the Central Motor Vehicle Rules, 1989, making the use of a safety harness and crash helmet mandatory for children, below the age of four years, riding pillion on a two-wheeler. "Here, because the child is either sitting in front of the driver or behind the driver, in the event of an accident, s/he gets thrown on a different part of the road. While an adult might be able to act quickly, lift themselves up, and run away from the crash scene, a child might take time to do that and that's why we often see children getting run over by other passing vehicles," shares Tewari, adding that over 30 children get killed daily in India, and majority of them are inside the car and on two-wheelers.

During the last six months, three major road accidents in India occurred because of children, says Sagar Joshi, founder, Mumbai-based aggregator service for garages and local mechanics, AUTO I CARE. "In one of the incidents, a child sitting on the lap of an adult suddenly moved the steering wheel, resulting in an incident where the car flipped. The entire family received injuries, and one elderly family member is still fighting for his life," says Joshi, adding that the onus lies on the parents to ensure that children aren't sitting on the front seat, but on the rear seat with proper safety gear. "Most Indians love putting the sticker ‘baby on board,' but I'd rather they installed a children's seat. That would actually help," adds Joshi.

As far as the argument on why a CRS is necessary, when there's an airbag - a vehicle occupant-restraint system using a bag designed to inflate extremely quickly, then quickly deflate during a collision - is concerned, Srivastava says that "air bags can be dangerous as they can suffocate a child when they inflate". "If a child is near the dashboard and the airbag inflates, the pressure can be so intense that the child can be thrown back to the seat with force or the rear of the vehicle and it can put them in serious danger," he adds.

Srinagar-based journalist Shuja-ul-haq, 37, installed a car seat when his first born turned four months old. "When we are thinking about the safety of our child everywhere, why not in our cars, where they are more vulnerable?" he asks, adding that in India it's almost a norm to accommodate more than five people in the car. "When you install a child seat, it feels like space is being wasted. But that's where you make the distinction - you are prioritising the safety of your child first," adds Shuja.

The way forward, says Srivastava, is introducing technology to track such violations. "We already have cameras which detect seatbelt violations and speed, but we should also have them detect if the CRS is installed. Once there is awareness, no parent would want to compromise on the safety of their children."

2,700
Children below the age of 14 died in road accidents in 2020, according to the National Crime Records Bureau