Taking a drive with children is exciting. It is one of the ways of bonding with them. But it can become risky if you refuse to heed certain safety measures
1. Beware of front seat dangers
Anyone, child or adult, sitting in the front seats of a car is more vulnerable to injuries in case of a head-on collision. Children in a car, who are not fastened with a seat belt, or who are not placed in an appropriate sized and correctly fitted child seat, may be thrown out of their seats with high impact, leading to serious injuries.
2. Wear seat belts
According to www.ehow.com, children should certainly be safely fastened when in a car. If the car doesn’t have enough seat belts for everyone, children, who are younger than three years old, must be fastened first. Once a child has become used to being fastened in a chair, they will not protest about sitting in a child’s car seat. Every time they take it off, stop the car put it back on.
3. Don’t leave children unattended to in a car
The temperature inside a car can spike drastically in just 10 minutes and create a suffocating environment in a locked car, even if the weather is pleasant outside. Rising temperatures aren’t the only hazard in a locked car: children can accidentally disengage the hand brake, or get fingers caught in automatic windows, or keys can become locked in the car trapping children inside, getting stuck in a seat belt, or any number of other dangerous scenarios. The most dangerous scenario arises when children are left alone in a car where the engine is running or the vehicle’s keys are in the ignition, or both.
4. Don’t drive with child on your laps
A lot of parents erroneously don’t see anything wrong in driving with their kids on their laps. In addition to the fact that it may be distracting for the driver, children are more vulnerable to injuries in case of a collision and are also at risk because of front-seat airbags.
5. Use child seats
These special seats for young children should be firmly fitted on the rear seats. There are specially designed car seats available for infants, toddlers and older children, with each model coming with a weight limit.
6. Be attentive
Do keep checking if the children are still secured from time to time. Kids seem to take buckles and straps as a challenge and will work hard to get out of them.
7. Ensure they are seated
Do not allow children to stand in a moving car. Traffic is unpredictable and sudden braking can make a young child fly across the car and get severely injured.
8. Car seat safety
Parents read your car seat safety instructions, including your vehicle owner’s manual regarding the operation of your seat belts; doing so will ensure your child’s safety. Do not place rear-facing car seats in the front seat of your vehicle equipped with passenger-side airbags. Deployment of the airbag could result in injury to your child. Always make sure the car seat and your child are properly buckled in before driving away.
9. Keep children occupied
Occupying children during the outing will make them happier and leave you free to watch the road. If you have a DVD player in the car, use it, and if the trip is long enough, have each child pick out a separate movie to watch. Children in the back seat could play flash card games, since these games do not require them to unbuckle their seat belts. Older kids can bring along their music players, books or magazines.
10. Never scold while driving
Even when children misbehave, don’t scold or try to spank when driving. Rather, pull up and see to the situation.
Culled from Punch Newspaper.
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