1) For Safety
There is no law in Malaysia that makes using car seats mandatory for children from birth to 8 years old. That is one reason why you will find a lot of kids jumping about in cars on the highway and huge statistics of car accidents that ended up fatal for the children passengers. Statistics clearly show how using child safety seats in cars can greatly reduce the risk of death in accidents.
For me and my family, buckling up the kids in their age appropriate car seats while travelling is so important, even if it was just to go out to get groceries 5 minute’s drive away. My children are now 6 and 3, and I still buckle them up even if it takes that extra few minutes to do so.
My six year old is looking cool while strapped up in his Ridesafer jacket which is an alternative to booster seats. It is highly portable, so I can travel on planes with it too and use it in taxis and rented cars while in another state.
My three year old would shout for me to buckle him up if I was slow, and he always like to buckle his chest buckle by himself. I am on a lot of Mom groups on Facebook and sometimes, the main issue mothers face is not that they do not want to buckle up their children, but their hearts soften when their young children start crying to be let out of the seats while in the midst of driving. Mothers all have a softer heart for their children and finds it difficult to sit through a ride with their wailing child. In fact, I have experienced it so many times myself with both children. The only way is to distract them or to just insist they stay buckled because they would at most cry once or twice before they realised that they couldn’t have their way, and as they grow up in understanding, they would realise the routine of getting into the car seat for their safety before moving.
Accidents are unfortunate and cannot be avoided at times, even after adopting a number of precautionary measures. Consult a Chino Hills Motorcycle Accident Attorney in case you fall victim to an unforseen and uncalled for event and need to charge for compensation.
2) For the Sanity Of the Mother
I cannot imagine driving with the kids jumping around, or even if my husband was the driver, I cannot imagine taking long trips in the car with the kids monkeying around, not only because it is so dangerous for them, it is also dangerous for the driver and for me and it would just drive me crazy. With my children, I have trained them to just sit quietly all the way in our short and long rides, and while they are seated, I have my sanity back! Sometimes or most times, on long rides to another state or town, the boys would definitely take their naps in the car seat. This is even a great time for me to chat with hubby or read that much long forgotten book. We had driven as far as Penang and Johor for 5-6 hours before, and the boys will wake up refreshed once we reached our hotels. As the mother, I would be very happy not to have to deal with any crankiness about long rides, even if I myself was tired from the ride. I would even consider that long ride a much needed Mom’s Time Out, so I don’t have to wait till Mother’s Day only for that.
Unfortunately, in Malaysia, many caretakers and parents are still unaware of the importance of using a Child Safety Seat while driving and many are not using the correct seat in the proper way.
This brings me to the awesome fact that late last year, Volkswagen has joined forces with the Association of Registered Childcare Providers Malaysia (ARCPM) or Persatuan Pengasuh Berdaftar Malaysia (PPBM) to raise awareness on the importance of keeping children safe whilst on the road.
“As a responsible automaker, we believe it is of utmost importance to educate people about the seriousness of this issue and help them take appropriate steps to ensure the safety of their children. We want to address the growing road mishaps involving children, and we are going beyond providing innovative safety features in our fleet of cars and embarking on our national initiative on Child Safety,†said Mr Armin Keller, Managing Director of Volkswagen Group Malaysia.
Volkswagen is actually collaborating with this largest childcare NGO to start a training module for over 280 childcare centres nationwide to advocate child safety in cars in Malaysia.
Approximately 28,000 parents will be trained by operators of childcare centres who are in turn trained by the Child Passenger Safety (CPS) Trainers from PPBM’s network on the importance of using proper child car seats to curb injuries and losses.
“We strongly believe that this training module will inspire, mobilise and strengthen prevention measures and engage childcare centres as agents of change in their respective communities. This training will also empower and facilitate the childcare centre personnel’s role in creating ‘safety consciousness’ and uphold child protection,†added Mr Armin Keller.
Aside from the roll out of the CPS training module, Volkswagen Malaysia will also donate 200 Volkswagen child safety seats to PPBM to further support the ongoing effort in education and raising awareness on this issue.
Did you know that Malaysia has one of the most dangerous roads in the world? It has a recorded road accidents numbering 23.8 deaths in a 100,000 population. Most of the time, children are not spared and they are considered the most vulnerable category of passengers in these road accidents. (Stats : Road Safety Annual Report 2013 by International Traffic Safety Data and Analysis Group (IRTAD).
As seen in the infographic above, child safety seats can really reduce the number of risk of deaths in passenger cars, and is a definite proven way to minimise injuries especially amongst children aged between 1 to 4 years, and all the way up to 8 years. Car safety seats made well are able to secure child passengers and distribute the force of the impact. This important aspect protects the child’s neck and spine from injuries, should an accident occur.
Next Sunday May 10 is my 6th Mother’s Day with my beloved babies. I want to be able to enjoy that day and every other day of their lives happy and healthy. Therefore, I will not ever sacrifice convenience over using the Car Seat when we travel anywhere. For new mums, the baby car seat should be the very first thing to buy, not clothes, not diapers, not toys.
Today I received this beautiful Mother’s Day card from my eldest boy Josiah, it really touched me how beautiful it is and how much love was poured into creating this. If they are the most precious people in my life, then I won’t have to think twice about making sure that they are safe and secure in the car with proper Child Safety Seats before going anywhere. Would you?