We are in need of car seats for our children when we go on outings, as the safety of our children is paramount to us. We are appealing to the community or corporates to assist us by either donating good quality second-hand seats or sponsoring new seats: we need approximately 10 for the older children and 6 for the small babies.
Will you help us? Contact us!
Below are excerpts from an article on ArriveAlive:
Research Data and Statistics on Child Restraints/ Baby Seats
- A review of various United States studies has shown that child safety seats that are correctly installed and used for children aged 0–4 years can reduce the need for hospitalization by 69%.
- The risk of death for infants is reduced by 70%, and that for children aged 1–4 years by 47–54%. Of children aged under 5 years, 485 lives could have been saved in the United States in 2002 if all the children had been in child safety seats.
- It has been estimated in the United Kingdom that new rules on the use of child restraints rather than adult seat-belts for children up to 135 cm in height or aged 12 years and above will save over 2000 child injuries or deaths every year .
Understanding the way Seatbelts and Child Restraints / Baby Seats work
Seat-belts and child restraints are secondary safety devices and are primarily designed to prevent or minimize injury to a vehicle occupant when a crash has occurred. Seat-belts and child restraints thus:
- reduce the risk of contact with the interior of the vehicle or reduce the severity of injuries if this occurs;
- distribute the forces of a crash over the strongest parts of the human body;
- prevent the occupant from being ejected from the vehicle in an impact;
- prevent injury to other occupants (for example in a frontal crash, unbelted rear-seated passengers can be catapulted forward and hit other occupants).
Vehicle Restraints and Airbags
Airbags deploy at approximately 300 km/h. Therefore, vehicle occupants should ensure that they are restrained regardless of whether or not a vehicle has an airbag installed. It is best for small children to be sitting in a child restraint on the back seat away from airbags!
Protecting Child Passengers
At birth, the infant head is around a quarter of their total length and about a third of their body weight. An infant’s skull is very flexible, so a relatively small impact can result in significant deformation of the skull and brain. The smaller the child, the lower the force needed for injury. The infant rib cage is also very flexible. Impact to the chest can result in a large compression of the chest wall onto the heart and lungs, and some of the abdominal organs. The infant pelvis is unstable and cannot withstand the forces from an adult restraint system. Infants require their own special seat designed to cradle them in a crash, and provide protection from many types of crashes.
Like adult seat-belts, child restraints in cars are intended to keep a child firmly secured in their seat so that in the event of sudden braking or collision the child is not thrown against the car interior or ejected from the vehicle. The restraint must absorb kinetic energy (created by the motion of the child during the crash) without itself injuring the child and must be easy to use.
Read the full article: ArriveAlive – Child restraints and Road Safety.