IT is a constant eyesore when parents allow their toddlers and young children to occupy the front seat of a vehicle, to sit on their lap while driving, and to fasten themselves in the middle of the driver’s and passenger seat.

As such, Chairman of the National Road Safety Council, Earl Lambert is advocating for the enforcement of the child restraint laws and the proper use of car seats for children in motor vehicles to help curb the rising rate of road fatalities involving children.

Lambert made this call on Thursday during the ‘Police and You’ programme with key stakeholders in the Road Safety Council and the Guyana Police Force (GPF).
On Monday, January 2, 2023, six-month-old Devine Khan lost her life in a two-vehicle accident along the Unity Public Road, East Coast Demerara (ECD).

The child’s parents, along with the driver of the motorcar they were travelling in were also injured. The other driver had claimed that he fell asleep at the wheel and lost control of his car.
At the time of the accident the child was not in a car seat, nor was she restrained.

Lambert, while highlighting the case, said that attention needs to be placed on children travelling in vehicles without a car seat.
According to the Chairman, in other developed countries, there are car safety laws to promote child passenger safety, much of which he would like to see happen in Guyana as mass infrastructure development is ongoing.

“We have to see that the enforcement is in place because we look at the developed world and we see a lot of safety features are in place….
“We would propose that there is more enforcement where people are travelling with these babies or children, and [as it relates to] vehicles that they have a car seat or be kept restrained so that you can save their lives,” he said.

According to Section 45F of the Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic law, “Every driver of a motor vehicle which conveys a child shall cause such child to wear or be conveyed in an appropriate child restraint system.”

Additionally, a driver who contravenes this subsection commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding $10,000.
“It makes no sense that you go through nine months to carry a child and to lose that life like that,” Lambert said in his appeal to parents.

The country’s Traffic Chief, Dennis Stephens recently said that there was a six per cent increase in road fatalities in 2022 compared to the previous year.
There were six fatal accidents involving children which occurred during the weekend hours.
Stephens said that pedestrians remain one of the “most vulnerable” groups affected with 39 deaths recorded.

Additionally, 21 motorcyclists lost their lives in 2022, while a total of 661 motorcyclists were involved in accidents.
The Guyana Road Traffic Act does make provision for a “child restraint system” designed to diminish the risk of injury to a child in the event of a collision or abrupt deceleration of a vehicle by limiting the mobility of the child.

According to the law, the device used for securing the child should be designed “either to be fixed directly to an anchorage point or be used in conjunction with an adult seat belt and held in place by the restraining action of the belt.”

Furthermore, the device should be “fitted in the vehicle by the manufacturer and is of a type which complies with such standards as may be prescribed by the minister by regulations in respect of the shape, quality, construction, installation and assembly of seat belts and other safety belt assemblies and anchorage points and child restraint systems.”