According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), more than 500 children lose their lives on the world’s roads every day. Many are killed on the journey to or from school, hit by speeding traffic while attempting to cross a highway, falling from the family motorcycle, or becoming a casualty while sitting unrestrained on the school bus. And for every child that dies, another four are permanently disabled.

Road accidents are rarely investigated and under-reported across the country as there is no known government agency dedicated to road accident investigation, which makes data of accidents involving unrestrained children in school buses, private and public vehicles unavailable. However, a report in one of the papers by the federal road safety corps (FRSC) show that between 2010 and 2014, 1 903 children were killed and another 8 667 were injured in road traffic accidents. The report neither specified the age range of the children nor indicated the accident types. It is expected that the injury sustained by those children would lead to either permanent disability or death of some other thousands due to poor health care system, but post-accident response and care is a discussion for another time.

What does child restraint mean and why is it important?

A child restraint is simply a car safety seat for children (0 – 12 years) which provides passive restraints and adequate protection for the child in case of a crash, sudden stop, swerving evasive manoeuvres, or door opening during vehicle movement. A child restraint is important because the seat-belt (three-point lap and diagonal) used by adults is not designed to accommodate their varying sizes, weights and the different relative proportions of their bodies. For example, when a seat-belt is worn by a child, a smaller portion of the child’s abdomen is covered by the pelvis and rib cage, while the child’s ribs are more likely than an adult’s to bend rather than break, resulting in energy from a collision being transferred to the heart and lungs. Consequently, seat-belts may lead to abdominal injuries among children, and will not be optimally effective at preventing ejection and injury among them. Research shows that in a crash at just 50km/h (30 mph), an unrestrained child would be thrown forward with a force 30 to 60 times their body weight. They would be thrown about inside the vehicle, injuring themselves and quite possibly seriously injuring or even killing other people inside the vehicle. They are also likely to be ejected from the car through one of the windows. It is horrific to imagine.

Excessive speeding, drunk-driving, motorcycle helmets, seat-belts and child restraints are the top five road accident risk factors identified by the World Health Organization (WHO), but at the time of this writing, the use of child restraints is not yet a priority for the road safety authority in Nigeria, as their list of safety offences and penalties available on their website show. Contrary to this, the National Road Traffic Regulations 2012 Part XII Regulation 126 clearly states that;

1. Every vehicle shall have fitted in the front and rear seats, seat belts and child safety seats which shall be securely worn by the driver and the other occupants of the vehicle while the vehicle is on motion
2. The driver of a motor vehicle shall be responsible for the children who are passengers in such a vehicle and shall ensure that –

• the proper use of child locks in every vehicle where one is installed ; and
• the proper use of child safety seats for every child that is 7 years and below ; and
• that child seats are not installed in the front row of any vehicle.

3. Any person who contravenes the provisions of this regulation commits an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine of N2, 000:00 or to a term of 6 months imprisonment or to both.

If 44 % of the Nigerian population are children between the ages of 0-14, how could the national regulation place a fine of N2, 000 (less than €10) only on such a serious offence? For the record, drivers in the EU since 2003 face up to 4 penalty points and a fine of up to €800 (more than two hundred thousand naira) if convicted for failure to observe child restraint law. This regulation is obviously very weak and unenforced. Our demography and status quo clearly shows an urgent need for a relevant Child Restraints law to protect our young ones, and for road enforcement agencies to do more by revising the old and proposing new and relevant safety regulations, as well as ensuring compliance through adequate enforcement. “A law without enforcement is just a good advice” – Abe Lincoln.

In 1997, the Swedish parliament adopted the “Vision Zero” policy. The vision is based on attaining zero fatalities and serious injuries in traffic accidents. A basic assumption in the “Vision Zero” is that the transport system should be designed to suit the least tolerant person using the system and such a person should be taken as the design person for the system. The design of the road transport system, based on human tolerance, demands the most detailed knowledge of injury mechanisms and tolerance ability. Thus, one of the challenges is to identify such a design person for this system. Taking the “Vision Zero” seriously means that a person with low tolerance to mechanical forces (e.g. a child) should be the design criterion for the road transport system.

By 2012, only one child death was recorded for road traffic accident in Sweden. The vision of zero child death was almost achieved in fifteen years. This result has motivated several policy makers to adopt the vision zero policy like the State of Victoria in Australia and New York City in the United States to mention a few. Our law makers should not be an exception.

But, until our leaders are able to improve the relevance of our traffic regulations, and the road safety authorities are able to improve their quality of service and enforcement, the safety of children who are the most vulnerable members of the society remains the responsibility of every parent or guardian.

The continuation of this article shall focus on recommended methods from several research results on the use of child restraints and the safety of unborn children in moving a vehicle.

Adeyemi Adedokun is an Intelligent Transport Systems researcher at Linköping University, Sweden. He is passionate about transport infrastructure development and traffic safety in Nigeria and Africa.

Contact: adeyemi.adedokun@gmail.com, +46729037809.