In the recent 15th “Op Selamat” which was held during Hari Raya Aidilfitri, recorded 229 deaths in the two-week operational period. Perak alone had recorded 24 deaths during this festive season.
Among the fatalities were young babies and children. Hence, I strongly subscribe that under no condition should a child ever be left unsecured in a moving vehicle. Never hold a child on your lap when sitting in front, or worse, driving. Your arms alone won’t be able to restrain a child in a collision, and one would also be subjecting them to the force of the deploying airbags. This could potentially cause the child a broken neck, a fractured skull and other severe injuries. Ideally, children under 36kg should be secured with seat belts, together with either booster seat or booster cushion.
A child travelling in a secure environment is very important. However, there are many children completely exposed to great risks in case of road accidents. That is why the importance of using child car seat must be made compulsory for all private cars. While laws of gravity are universal, unfortunately, child car seat safety laws are yet to be implemented in our country.
Therefore I would like to call upon the Transport Ministry to immediately enforce the mandatory use of child car seats for all private cars in this country.
S. Sundralingam
