Emergency workers urge UAE families to buckle up children in cars

Emergency workers say they are sick of seeing parents risking the lives of their children by continuing to drive with toddlers unbuckled on their laps.

ABU DHABI // Emergency workers are fed-up of seeing parents drive with toddlers on their laps.

With car crashes the most common type of call-out front line staff attend, National Ambulance chief executive Robert Ball said many of his staff were disheartened to see so many families not heeding the repeated warnings given by emergency workers and the Government.

“Passengers not wearing seat belts can be propelled through the window when a car crashes and they are not wearing a seat belt,” he said.

“It doesn’t matter if you think you can hold onto a baby or anything else.

“If a car suddenly goes from 120 kilometres per hour to zero, nothing but a seat belt – not even the love of a mother’s arms – is able to keep a child restrained.”

Thomas Edelmann, founder of the website Road Safety UAE, agreed.

“The risk of death for rear seat car occupants who wear a seat belt is cut by 60 per cent. Wearing seat belts in the back also reduces the risk of dying in the front seat, since during a car crash the risk increases five-fold for the front passengers, if passengers in the back refuse to wear seat-belts.

“From whatever angle you look at it: there is simply no excuse not to wear a seat belt. All passengers in the front and back must be buckled up always.”