Save the Children

In the recent special surveillance campaign which monitored the use of seatbelts and child restraint systems in vehicles, the Guardia Civil identified and stopped 161 children who were at risk, as they were not secured in the vehicles by any kind of restrain system.

Of those children who could potentially owe their lives to vigilance campaigns like this, 54 were in the front seats of the vehicle, where they would not be permitted even if they were restrained, and 107 were in the back.

This data is of particular concern to the General Directorate of Traffic, as one of the objectives set out in the Road Safety Strategy approved by the Government for the years 2011-2020 is to ensure that no child loses their life by not sitting in a seat suitable to its weight and height, and so believes that further education and enforcement measures are needed.

During the week in March, the officers monitors 424,266 vehicles, in which they detected 2,631 infractions of drivers or passengers who did not use the statutory retention system.

To this data we must add the controlled vehicles in the many municipalities, whose local police had joined the monitoring campaign.

In addition to the 161 children who were traveling without any type of retention, another 2,470 adults were also found to not be wearing a seatbelt, 77% of whom did so on conventional roads, where 8 out of 10 deaths occur.

According to Gregorio Serrano, director of the DGT “this data does nothing but confirm the importance that all administrations have of continuing to monitor the use of the security device that have saved more lives and continue insisting on educating from the earliest ages on the benefits that contributes its use”.

A LIFE INSURANCE

The seatbelt is a basic and fundamental element of road safety, a life insurance. For this reason, its use is mandatory for all occupants of the vehicle and on all types of roads. In addition, the correct use of it is essential to fulfil the purpose for which it was created.

Children below 135 cm in height, in addition to traveling with the child restraint system appropriate to their size and weight as the standard requires, must be seated in the rear seats of vehicles, except:

1. When the vehicle does not have rear seats
2. When all the rear seats are already occupied by other minors of the same characteristics
3. When it is not possible to install all child restraint systems in said rear seats.

Only in these cases, can children occupy the front seat of the vehicle, but always using the restraint system approved to their size and weight.

In the surveillance that is made from the air with the helicopters available to the DGT, it is appreciated how many occupants of the vehicle drive without wearing or making the correct use of the seatbelt.