Buckle up your precious ones

MUSCAT, DEC 15 - Amid a call for development of a national strategy for the protection of children from road accidents, Royal Oman Police said that monitoring of cars for child safety seats will be intensified.
“Although child seats are mandatory by law, we still notice cars without them on the roads. We are keeping a watch on the offenders,” said a senior official at the ROP.
Children and babies are the most vulnerable and stand little chance of survival if they’re not properly buckled up with the seats, he said.
“Parents need to be more cautious,” he said, adding “a person who is not wearing a seatbelt is twice as likely to die or suffer injuries as a person wearing one”.
The warning comes amid recommendation at the State Council last week for chalking out a national strategy for the protection of children from accidents.
According to Dr Hamad bin Sulaiman al Salami, Chairman of the Social Committee, State Council, an integrated system is required to be in place to monitor children who suffer injuries in accidents.
“A study is also being conducted to find out why children are not being protected from accidents,” he said.
As per the new rules, child safety seats are mandatory for those under four years of age in Oman. The rules came into force from March 1 this year.
Motorists who fail to secure children in appropriate car seats will be charged with endangering a person’s life. Also offenders are liable to be fined RO 50. Dr Hamad said that the study will cover a number of areas including legislations relating to safety and security of children, the economic and social impact, and challenges in avoiding injuries to them in case of accidents.
“Road accident is one of the leading causes of death among children between the ages of five and 15”, he said. The World Health Organization stressed on the importance of using seat belts and car seats for children to prevent injuries and deaths in road accidents.
In Unesco’s recent Road Safety Index report, Oman received 65.4 points out of 100 compared to 96.2 for Sweden and 96 for the UK.
“Improving road safety will require public education, advocacy and building upon best examples elsewhere”, the global agency said in the report.
Seat belts have saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of people around the world in the past 30 years, especially in countries which have enacted and enforced laws on universal seat belt and child restraint use.