ABU DHABI // Child car seats could be available free of charge in some Abu Dhabi taxis by the end of the year.
“It’s very important that taxis are equipped with child car seats, so we’re trying to have them ready by the end of this year,” said Mohammed Al Hosani, director of franchise and licensing at TransAD, the Centre for Regulation of Transport.
The initiative started late last year and the official launch was originally scheduled for Mothers’ Day, celebrated in most Arab countries on March 21, he said.
The Health Authority Abu Dhabi (Haad) and the Department of Transport (DoT) are both members of the Abu Dhabi Safety and Traffic Solutions Committee, a committee created by the Executive Affairs Authority in January 2009 to deal with all aspects of road safety and commuting.
Other members are from Abu Dhabi Municipality, the Department of Municipal Affairs, Abu Dhabi Police and the Urban Planning Council (UPC).
“It’s still with Haad and DoT,” Mr Al Hosani said. “We are still waiting for their response. We need some approval on the car seats’ specifications.
“The plan is to install the child car seats in some taxis, starting with the 60 family taxis,” Mr Al Hosani said.
“The six franchise taxi companies each operate 10 family taxis, but we’ve decided to increase the number to 25 for each company.”
Al Ghazal Taxi, Arabia Taxi, Cars Taxi, Emirates Taxi, National Taxi, and Tawasul are the taxi companies.
Child car seats in taxis are an excellent idea, said Dr Michal Grivna, consultant in community medicine at Tawam Hospital and associate professor at UAE University in Al Ain.
“But it should work through a call centre, when the staff will ask if children will use the taxi and will send a taxi with an appropriate car seat, just like how it is being done in Graz in Austria,” he said. “It is technically difficult to equip all taxis with different car and booster seats.”
Mothers in the capital welcomed the news.
“Every taxi should have at least two child car seats,” said Freshta Hashim, 29, an Abu Dhabi resident from Afghanistan. “The safety of our children is very important.”
She ensures that her son Mohammed Haroon, 4, and two-month old daughter Sadaf are always properly restrained in the back seat of their car.
“I don’t want to hold my baby in my arms, so she’s strapped in a car seat,” Ms Hashim said. “I don’t want her to suffer any back pain. Of course I want to make sure our two children are as safe as possible when riding in our car or when we’re in a taxi.”
Suzy Feiyum, 36, mother of 14-month-old Aaron and 10-year-old Yuang, supported car seats in taxis.
“We have two car seats because it is the best protection we can give to our children when travelling by car,” she said. “Taxis should also provide car seats.”
But Lesley Cully, founder of the seat belt safety campaign Buckle Up In The Back, said it would be difficult to get some passengers to use the car seats until it became law.
“That’s why we need the law,” she said.
“Taxis here are used often and regularly, so we need to make them safer for families and children to use.”
Thomas Edelmann, founder of the website RoadSafetyUAE, agreed.
“This must be part of the legal framework,” he said. “Our babies and kids when in cars must be protected at all times. It would put UAE taxi corporation on the map if they self declare their 100 per cent commitment to a ‘We buckle up UAE’s kids’ initiative.”
rruiz@thenational.ae
