Parents insist on safety for young daughter

Lozan Gebbawi, 27, and her husband Mohammed make sure their daughter Yara is properly strapped into a car seat, no matter how much the child protests.

Lozan Gebbawi always straps her daughter Yara, 21 months, into a child seat when they travel by car. Mona Al Marzooqi / The National

ABU DHABI // No amount of crying and wailing will persuade Lozan Gebbawi, 27, to remove the harness from her daughter's car seat.
She makes sure that Yara, who is 21 months old, is always properly strapped in when she or her husband drives their white sport utility vehicle around the city or to Dubai.
Ms Gebbawi and her husband, Mohammed Issa, 33, keep their daughter entertained by singing to her or playing her favourite songs on her tablet.
"Sometimes she cries so I give her milk, chocolate or chips," she said. "But it doesn't happen that often."
The couple first bought an infant carrier for babies up to nine months, and then a car seat suitable for toddlers weighing between 9kg and 18kg.
"All our friends also keep their children strapped into car seats," Ms Gebbawi said. "It's for their safety of course, instead of them sitting on their mothers' laps, which is very dangerous."
Mr Issa, who has lived in the UAE since 1991, agreed.
He is aware that not restraining children in a booster or child car seat increases the risk of injury or death.
Seven out of 10 fatal injuries that claimed the lives of children in Abu Dhabi between 2008 and 2010 were caused by car crashes.
It is even more important to drive carefully with children in the car, he said.
"It's essential to keep them safe at all times," Mr Issa said. "When I'm driving to Dubai, I don't go beyond 120kph. I try my best to drive carefully when Yara is with us."
He said he hoped it would become mandatory to use child safety seats, and enforced across the UAE.
"Even if car seats were provided for free to parents, for example, I don't think it would encourage them to use the car seats," Mr Issa said. "It has to be a legal requirement. People should be more safety conscious, especially around their children."
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