"The installation rate of child safety seats that can really ensure traffic safety is not high... Parents are urged to install child safety seats in a timely and correct manner and educate their children to abide by traffic rules. ”
Not long ago, the People's Procuratorate of Shanhaiguan District, Qinhuangdao City, Hebei Province, together with local education, public security and other departments, jointly issued the "Child Safety Seat Installation Proposal", suggesting that parents pay attention to the installation of child safety seats and protect the safety of children.
The installation of child safety seats can effectively reduce the harm of traffic accidents to children riding, in real life, although the number of families equipped with child safety seats in China is gradually increasing, its penetration rate is still very low. The clear legislation on the use of child safety seats reflects the country's emphasis on children's healthy travel and minors' traffic safety, which is conducive to parents' use according to law.
For the first time, it was incorporated into national legislation
A 10-month-old baby girl sitting in the child safety seat in the back of a sedan collided with a truck going straight in the opposite direction when she turned left at the intersection, and the huge impact force bounced the car back and hit another car in the same direction. Fortunately, the baby girl was protected by a car seat and the baby girl was unharmed.
A sedan collided with the front of a heavy semi-trailer while driving, and the 6-month-old baby who was held in the arms of his mother was thrown out of the window under the action of the huge impact, and died of serious injuries.
These were two traffic accidents in Taicang and Zhangjiagang in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province.
Statistics on road traffic safety for children show that in traffic accidents in which children are involved, the child mortality rate is 8 times higher than that of child seats installed in the car. Relevant laboratory simulation experiments have found that when a vehicle collides at a speed of 50 kilometers per hour, children in car seats will be effectively protected, while children without car seats will fly out in an instant.
Child safety seats can restrain children in the car seat in the event of a car collision or emergency braking, and will not fly out; By adequately absorbing energy and restricting the child's physical movement, the impact force can be reduced to the child's harm and children can be protected; It can prevent children from moving freely in the car, mistakenly driving the door and window of the car, and falling out of the car.
According to statistics, in recent years, although the number of families equipped with child safety seats in the mainland has gradually increased, the penetration rate of child safety seats is still in its infancy, and the penetration rate is less than 10%. The 14th Five-Year Plan proposes to "effectively protect children's rights to survival and development" and "reduce child deaths.". Deepening the safety and security system for children's rides is conducive to reducing the casualty rate in traffic accidents.
Article 18 of the newly revised Law on the Protection of Minors stipulates that minors' parents or other guardians shall provide minors with a safe family living environment, and promptly eliminate potential safety hazards that cause injuries such as electric shock, burns, and falls; Adopt measures such as child safety seats and educate minors to obey traffic rules to prevent minors from being harmed by traffic accidents; Improve the awareness of outdoor safety protection, and avoid accidents such as drowning and animal injury for minors.
According to this law, child safety seats are a compulsory option for children to travel by car. Legislation is an important guarantee for the comprehensive protection of children's safety in the car, so some reviews pointed out that the use of child safety seats was included in national legislation for the first time, opening a new chapter in children's safety.
There are many misconceptions about use
Not long ago, the Shanhaiguan District People's Procuratorate issued the "Questionnaire on the Use of Child Safety Seats", and with the strong support of the education department and the parents of the students, a total of 3382 valid questionnaires were received, and the survey subjects comprehensively covered parents of all ages under the age of 12.
Through data analysis, for the law to force children to use car seats, parents have expressed support, can recognize the importance of child safety seats, 81.96% of the interviewed parents expressed their willingness to take the initiative to buy child safety seats for their children, the most important factor causing them to buy or consider the safety of children's rides, the choice of child safety seats is the most concerned about the safety certification issue.
However, statistics also show that the proportion of parents who actually install child safety seats for their children is not optimistic, with 60% of respondents saying that only a few parents they know use it, and no one even uses child safety seats. There are still a large number of parents who do not put their children in the car seat when driving, but choose to put them in the back seat, in the co-pilot or let the passengers hold the child, and even hold it in their own hands. In addition, some parents feel that their children can wear seat belts, and there is no need to install child safety seats.
In order to gain an in-depth understanding of the use of child safety seats in life, the procurator of the Shanhaiguan District People's Procuratorate and the local traffic police visited the kindergartens and primary schools and found that some parents said that they had child safety seats at home, but the children did not want to be tied up and did not use them, and some parents thought that the road was not far, so it did not matter.
In fact, if there is no child safety seat, once it encounters a violent collision or emergency brake, a child weighing 10 kilograms will often produce hundreds of kilograms of inertia, and it is difficult for parents to hold the child. If the passenger is holding the child in the co-pilot position, the opening of the airbag will cause the child's head and neck to be misaligned, and even lead to the death of the child. Holding the child in the back seat, the body of the passenger will form a pressure on the child, and the child will suffer greater injuries due to hitting the front seat.
The adult seat belt on the vehicle is designed for adults over 1.45 meters in height and is based on the height and weight of the adult. For children who are not 1.45 meters tall, in the event of an accident, the seat belt will happen to be in the position of the child's neck, but it will become a hidden danger to the child's life. In contrast to seat belts, child safety seats change the restraint points without creating a risk of neck tightening.
According to the questionnaire survey and the problems found in the field visit, the Shanhaiguan District People's Procuratorate, together with the local education, public security and other departments, jointly issued the "Proposal for the Installation of Child Safety Seats", calling on parents to install child safety seats in a timely and correct manner, educate children to abide by traffic rules, and protect their children's healthy and safe growth with practical actions.
There is an urgent need to clearly stipulate the details
On several major e-commerce platforms, the sales of child safety seats are relatively hot, and dozens of child safety seat products have sold more than 1,000 per month. However, the purchase and installation of child safety seats still depends on the safety awareness of parents and has not become a "just need".
Before the use of child safety seats was incorporated into national legislation, Nanjing, Shanghai, Shandong, Shenzhen and other places had begun to carry out relevant provisions on the use of child safety seats in local regulations.
In March 2014, Shanghai included the specifications for the use of child safety seats in the Shanghai Municipal Regulations on the Protection of Minors, which is the first local legislation in mainland China to require the use of child safety seats. In August of the same year, Shandong issued relevant local regulations, requiring children on highways to ride in car seats. Subsequently, Shenzhen also carried out relevant legislation, clarifying that children under the age of 4 must sit in a car seat in a private car, and children under 12 years old cannot sit in the co-driver's seat. The Nanjing Municipal Regulations on the Protection of Minors, which came into effect on 1 May 2016, stipulate that child safety seats should be equipped and correctly used when carrying minors under the age of 4 in family cars.
The correct use of restraint devices such as child safety seats is currently the most effective means to protect the safety of children in the car, and is an important way to reduce children's road traffic injuries. However, except for drivers in Shenzhen who clearly violate the relevant regulations on child safety seats will be fined 300 yuan, other places and the newly revised Law on the Protection of Minors do not specify mandatory measures and punitive measures for the use of child safety seats.
"If parents do not equip and correctly use child safety seats for minors, because the current relevant laws do not clarify the corresponding administrative law enforcement departments and punishment standards, they can only advocate for parents, and cannot investigate and punish them or impose them and punish them." Sun Rihua, deputy dean of the School of Law and Politics of Hebei University of Geosciences, said.
To this end, relevant experts suggest that after the revision of the Law on the Protection of Minors, in order to ensure the popularization and use of child safety seats in accordance with the law, more clear regulations and rules should be provided, and punitive measures for not using child safety seats should be introduced as soon as possible, and further clearly stipulate the legal liabilities that guardians, other family members, and drivers will face if they fail to use child safety seats correctly when they carry children.
According to reports, children under the age of 12 should generally be equipped with child safety seats and used correctly. Young children should use child car seats facing the back seat, which can enable young children to obtain heavy protection such as seat backs, cushions, neck safety pillows, etc., so as to absorb the impact impulse to the greatest extent; Children between the ages of 3 and 10 should be replaced by a forward-facing child seat; Older children who are no longer able to sit in a child seat can opt for a child safety cushion so that they can use a seat belt.