We want our children to be safe, so why don’t we care about them in a car?
As a newly minted father, one of my primary concerns was getting a child seat, particularly with the freight services closed and international travel being a no-no for some time to come. Thankfully, a friend of mine, Bharat, came through with an infant carrier that he’d used earlier from Chicco. However, some people asked why bother, after all carrying a child in a lap is ‘safe enough’ and since child seats are not mandatory in India, why bother. Using a child seat or child carriers were a sign of privilege, it was claimed by some folks. Fair enough, but if I can afford it, why shouldn’t I use it.
But that did raise a more pertinent point, is it a privilege after all? While some high-end brand car seats are indeed quite expensive, the top products from Chicco, Britax and Maclaren all easily exceed $200, that is just Rs 15,000 before import duties, and such seats are sold in India for Rs 20,000-25,000, which is still a small fraction of the price of even an entry-level hatchback. That said, there are crash-tested car seats with both belt and ISOFIX attachments that cost under Rs 10,000 from e-commerce sites in India, these are not expensive by any stretch, particularly, when parents can spend many multiples of that sum on a birthday party.
As a parent one assumes that you would do your utmost and spend a lot of money to keep your child safe? So why do I continue to see some parents allowing their wards to stick their heads out of car sunroofs? This despite two children dying of kite-string related injuries a couple of years ago in Delhi. And one can assume those are not the only children who have died due to this carelessness. I have seen parents clutching onto children sitting on their lap, clearly not belted, why do they behave like this? Yes, a mother’s grip on her child might be a tight one, but the physics of an accident, even a low-speed one, can generate tremendous forces that could easily break that bond and throw the child out of a seat.
And believe me when I tell you that such carelessness is possibly more prevalent among the rich and educated than it is among the less-privileged. It is frightening to see school vans operated by Maruti Omni’s, not a vehicle that I’d want to be in. It is just like seeing a pillion rider carry a babe in her arms while riding on a motorcycle or scooter, or a family of four riding on a two-wheeler. It is not that these parents want or wish their children to be unsafe, but limited resources push them to a compromise. Better public transportation options will be a clear way out of this mess. But what about those who can afford good cars? Why do they get a pass for their reckless behaviour regarding their children? Forget child seats, far too often I notice children below a certain height sitting in the front seat of modern vehicles, vehicles with front airbags. Even keeping a child belted or on a lap in front is downright dangerous — the airbag deployment in case of an accident might easily snap the neck of the child. Even if you disable the airbag or you have a car without a passenger airbag, a child in front is so light that he or she could easily fly out of the seat and into the windshield, or maybe even outside the vehicle.
One has to be extremely careful with children in vehicles, yes kids might throw tantrums about sitting in front and parents will give in to them, often in sheer exasperation. It is not easy, but if the safety of children is paramount and as parents that should be our number one priority, then we should ensure that our children are kept safe in cars and other vehicles whether the law mandates it or not. We must work to remove the myth, which I myself believed that child seats are a privilege. If you can afford a car you can afford to put your child in a proper and safe child seat too.
