At the 18th edition of “Protection of Children in Car Seats” International Conference the most prestigious event of its kind organized by TUV Munchen for the first time Romania participated not only as a mention of statistical data, but with a voice, the voice of the Children’s Car Safety Foundation, the only non-governmental organization whose goal is to increase the safety level of small passengers traveling on Romanian roads.
Starting from an extremely sad statistic, which indicates that instead of witnessing a decrease in the number of road accidents with victims among children aged 0-12 years, as happens in all other countries in the European Union, in our country the numbers are stubborn to increase and instead of noticing after 2014 a sharp increase in the use of car seats for children, in our country the percentage remained somewhere at 20%, Children Car Safety Foundation aims to find out the reasons behind these statistics: why parents in Romania continue to transport their children the same as 30 years ago: uninsured in a special seat and not even insured in the seat belt of the vehicle.
Analyzing the data obtained through the observational study conducted on a number of 1371 children who visited the two Child Car Safety Centers between October 1, 2019 and November 15, 2020, we managed to draw some conclusions and be able to establish the guidelines of the Child Car Safety Action Plan for the period 2021-2030.
Here are some of our conclusions:
1. Parents’ ignorance of the legislation in force regarding the transport of children by motor vehicle
2. Lack of correct sources of information regarding the car safety of small passengers
3. Lack of a national campaign on traffic safety for small passengers
4. The small number of fines received by drivers who do not comply with the legislation regarding the transport of small passengers
5. Maybe the last one on the list (no matter how hypocritical we are) is the financial cause.
Starting from the data of the observational study, we elaborated the first Action Plan in the field of Small Passenger Car Safety.
The plan includes:
• Educational component
• The component of increasing the awareness at the level of the Romanian society regarding the car safety of the small passengers
• Two special projects: “Your Child’s Car Safety Starts at Maternity” and “A Second Chance for My Car Seat”
Cancer, genetic diseases are serious problems of society, but unfortunately they are not problems that can be anticipated or prevented.
Road accidents with child victims have clear causes and are so easy to prevent.
It is only up to YOU ​​and YOU and YOU to do it and help save lives! It is not normal for 6% of the lives brought into the world in 2019 to die due to a car accident! It’s an awfully high percentage for a country like ours, a country with such a low birth rate.
Remember: “Your child’s car safety is NOT OPTIONAL! And one more thing: Your friend’s car safety is not optional either, as long as you know that life can be protected and you know exactly how!”
So dear father: get involved, answer the information related to the safety of small passengers among your friends and help us to change statistics!