While there is increasing awareness about child safety, there are still many deaths that could be avoided. According to data from the "Panorama of Child Safety in the Automobile (1990-2009)" carried out by the Road Safety Institute of the Mapfre Foundation and Ford Spain, 40% of children killed in traffic accidents last year did not use any child restraint system.
Not wearing a seat belt, wearing a badly installed restraint system or not using it are the most frequent mistakes with tragic consequences in children under 14 years.
We not only talk about deaths, but also easily avoidable injuries. Between 50 and 80 percent of fatal and serious injuries in children due to traffic accidents could be avoided if proper child restraint systems were placed.
The excuses that parents make the most is that the journey is very short or that they are lazy, but when it comes to the life of the children there is no excuse that no one is exempt, anyone can touch it. Child restraint systems save lives.
In 2009, 60 children died in traffic accidents, of which 40 died in road accidents (34 in vehicles, 2 by bicycle, 1 by moped and 3 pedestrians) and 20 in the city. Of these, 19 were pedestrians, a high number that forces to reinforce campaigns on road safety in this regard.
Traffic accidents are still the main cause of violent death in children under 14, a sad reality, even more so if we consider that in almost half of the cases could be prevented with the proper use of retention systems.
