Officials demonstrating the use of child seats in cars.
A child not sitting on a suitable car seat is the most vulnerable in a traffic accident, especially those under the age of five. A majority of children who suffer serious injuries and those who die due to accidents may not have used tailor-made child passenger seat, says the Director of Hamad International Training Centre and Chairman of the Kulluna safety campaign, Dr Khalid Abdulnoor Saifeldeen.
“You don’t need make an accident, but a sudden break is enough,” he told The Peninsula yesterday.
“Statistics tell us that serious injuries and most mortality due to road accidents among children under the age of five will not have happened if they were strapped in a car seat,” he added.
With a large number of parents not using a car seat for the child, Kulluna begun an initiative which stronger emphasis on child car passenger safety. Safe Kids Qatar partnered with Kulluna in making the initiative a success. Within two years it has trained 120 Child Passenger Safety Technicians (CPST).
Majority of CPST technicians are from the health sector.
A four day training session focuses on teaching participants to become child passenger safety technicians so that they can teach parents and caregivers how to choose and correctly install the appropriate car seat for their children.
Child passenger seats are recommended for all children until the age of 10 years and it is essential to select the appropriate seat for every child depending on height and weight.
CPST technicians can spot mistakes and show parents how to fix errors, making the seat safe and suitable for the child.
“We train and certify technicians and are committed to hold this training more frequently. Car-related injuries are preventable accidents and by training CPST technicians, we are able to spread awareness among the public about the importance of car seats,” said Dr Saifeldeen.
“As we produce technicians we also produce trainers, so we have reached enough trainers to deliver our courses without relying visiting instructors from the US. We are the only country outside the US to deliver courses independently. We require some 500 technicians in Qatar to help us do a wide scale public education programme, which we are working to reach,” he added.
A properly fitted car seat can save a child’s life in an accident but many parents often don’t have it installed correctly.
“We know only a low percent of parents use a child passenger seat. That’s why education is important , you don’t need a law or regulation to tell a parent to take of the child, its responsibility of parents, we don’t doubt they don’t love their children but they need to take care of children in the right way,” said Dr Saifeldeen.
