The other day, as I stepped out of my building complex, a car passed me by. A man was driving, at moderate speed, WITH A TODDLER IN HIS LAP. I bellowed furiously at the retreating car and then noticed the mother of the toddler was sitting right next to them.
I gasped and sputtered and ran out of expletives I wanted to spew and then realized there was no way they could hear me, given the windows were up and the air conditioning on.
Everywhere I look around, I see perfectly loving parents, doing things that could only be idiocy. Putting toddlers in the front seat without a seat belt. Making children walk on the outside in the face of oncoming traffic. Letting kids run wild near escalators and stairways. Buying toys which have small detachable parts.
Setting up disasters waiting to happen.
Car Safety wonder if it really doesn’t strike them that these could be dangerous, or that there is a certain insouciance about not bothering with safety rules for these parents. Internationally, the rules about baby car seats being mandatory for infants and toddlers up to two years, might seem a little extreme to us here, but they are extremely necessary given the high speeds most vehicular traffic on their road have. Internationally, they have car seat guidelines about how toddlers should ride in a rear face car seat, until they reach two or the weight and height limits of their car seat. From the age of two, there are forward facing car seat for baby abroad. All children below 13 are expected to be seated in the back seat, with a seat belt, and in the middle of the car where the possibility of injury is the least.
They are pretty strict about the using of car seats for infants and toddlers, not to mention their insistence on the use of seat belts for all passengers in the car. I would think that even if car seats aren’t mandatory in India, parents who can afford one should definitely invest in one in order to ensure the safety of their kids in the car. I didn’t have a car seat though, when the child was small. There wasn’t much awareness about them back then and the child was always firmly in an adult lap.
I gasped and sputtered and ran out of expletives I wanted to spew and then realized there was no way they could hear me, given the windows were up and the air conditioning on.
Everywhere I look around, I see perfectly loving parents, doing things that could only be idiocy. Putting toddlers in the front seat without a seat belt. Making children walk on the outside in the face of oncoming traffic. Letting kids run wild near escalators and stairways. Buying toys which have small detachable parts.
Setting up disasters waiting to happen.
Car Safety wonder if it really doesn’t strike them that these could be dangerous, or that there is a certain insouciance about not bothering with safety rules for these parents. Internationally, the rules about baby car seats being mandatory for infants and toddlers up to two years, might seem a little extreme to us here, but they are extremely necessary given the high speeds most vehicular traffic on their road have. Internationally, they have car seat guidelines about how toddlers should ride in a rear face car seat, until they reach two or the weight and height limits of their car seat. From the age of two, there are forward facing car seat for baby abroad. All children below 13 are expected to be seated in the back seat, with a seat belt, and in the middle of the car where the possibility of injury is the least.
They are pretty strict about the using of car seats for infants and toddlers, not to mention their insistence on the use of seat belts for all passengers in the car. I would think that even if car seats aren’t mandatory in India, parents who can afford one should definitely invest in one in order to ensure the safety of their kids in the car. I didn’t have a car seat though, when the child was small. There wasn’t much awareness about them back then and the child was always firmly in an adult lap.
Car seat for baby, booster seats for toddlers and seat belts for bigger children. And yes, those parents who let the kids stand on the seat and put half their torsos out of the sun roof, I have no epithets too strong for you.
No comments:
Post a Comment