opinion
By Anne Robi
TANZANIA is among
countries in Africa lacking laws providing protection to children riding
in motor vehicles through mandatory use of child restraints, despite
the device being one of the...
improvements in road safety management
saving thousands of lives in industrialised countries.
Legal loopholes in
the use of child restraints that are effective in protecting children
from injury while traveling in vehicles resulted in extremely low use of
the life-saving seat among car owners in the country. This is so
because the whole exercise of purchasing, installing and use of the
restraints is left in the hands of car owners.
Several parents
interviewed in Dar es Salaam confirmed having no child restraints in
their vehicles due to low awareness and inadequate promotion of the
child safety seat usage under the circumstances of no mandatory
legislation.
Ester Urrasa, a
mother of three, told this reporter that she is not aware of child
restraints even though she has owned a car for a long time. "I had my
first car when I was in secondary school, I only know of seat-belts in
the car and not child restraints," she says.
However, the lucky
few parents who have installed child restraints in their vehicle say the
seats are ideal especially during an instant scene that could shake the
car while in motion.
"Child restraints
are effectively useful for child protection in motor vehicles not only
do they help save them from injuries during car crash, they are useful
when driving the vehicle with a child as it will be secured even without
an adult sitting next to the restrained child," says Mariam Said, who
is a mother of two.
The World Health
Organisation (WHO) Global Status Report on Road Safety 2018 indicates
that road traffic injuries are now one of the leading causes of death
for children between 5-14 years and young adults between 15-29 years of
age.
The organisation
calls for enacting and enforcing legislation on key behavioural risk
factors including seat-belts and child restraints which are among the
critical components of an integrated strategy to prevent road traffic
deaths.
It goes on to say
that the legislation requires children to use a child seat at least
until 10 years /135 cm, specifying standards for child restraints and
restricts children under a certain age or height from sitting in the
front seat.
According to the
organisation, the countries which meet the criteria are considered to
have a good child restraint law as it states that placing children in
the seats is the best way to protect them in case of a crash especially
when they are younger.
A review of the
effectiveness of child restraints compared the risk of injury to
children in different seating positions in cars. Children who sit at the
rear without child restraints have around 25 per cent lower risk of
being injured than children who sit in the front without restraints.
For children using
restraints in both seating positions the risk in the rear is 15 per cent
lower than in the front. In order to be effective, WHO says that child
restraint systems must be appropriate to the age and the size of the
child, meet safety standards and the be installed correctly.
The child
protection should be used until children are well protected by the adult
seat belt which does not happen before the child is about 135-cm high
or about 10 years old.
Push for legal
framework As road safety stakeholders in the country push for the
enactment of laws on child restraints and other risks factors, the
Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS) plans to set national standards for
child restraints, a move aimed at opening up a market for child
restraints in Tanzania.
TBS Officer
responsible for Standards, Mr Yona Africa made the revelation recently,
noting that currently, the country has no policy on child restraints
standards, as the products were rarely used in the country.
"For now, there is
need for child restraints--- members of public have been pushing for
this and for that matter we have reasons to set national standards on
the child seats," he said, adding the plan will be implemented in the
next financial year (2019/2020).
If TBS establishes
the national standards, Tanzania is likely to become one of the first
countries in East Africa with national standards on child restraints.
According to WHO, African countries with such standards include Angola
and South Africa, and 33 countries, representing 652 million people,
currently have laws on child restraint systems that align with best
practices.
Call for awareness
campaign A road safety ambassador and legal analysts with Tanzania Law
Society (TLS), Mr Markphason Buberwa, suggests interventional efforts
focusing on increasing awareness that will be combined with education in
promoting child restraints before enactment of the law on the products.
"Mandatory law on child restraints is a supreme plan that the country should put in place to protect children in motor vehicles,
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