R I G H T L A N E

Parents all want the best for their children.  We are thus inclined to purchase all sorts of books, toys, strollers, and gadgets for kids when preparing for a trip; we want to educate them and keep them entertained.  Yet in one aspect are many parents negligent, and that is in safely ferrying children in their cars.  How many times do you see children standing up unrestrained in the front passenger seat, or a mother carrying a kid in her lap, sometimes without a seatbelt? 

Exercising restraint

There are many misconceptions about keeping children safe in cars.  Most adults driving now will remember being allowed to sit and stand pretty much anywhere in a moving car.  That may seem like a lot of fun for the kids, but it’s also inherently dangerous.  An unrestrained child will be thrown forward in a collision and will be injured or killed by coming into contact with the car’s interior.

Proper restraint doesn’t mean having a kid sit on your lap with your arms wrapped around her.  Carrying a child on your lap is a terrible way to travel, and we’re not just talking about your legs getting numb after a while.  First of all, it’s impossible to hold onto a child in a serious accident.  Second, when both child and adult are thrown forward by inertia, the child will become a cushion that will be instantly squashed by the adult.  A seatbelt is designed to be used by only one person, so buckling up adult and child together is not a good idea either.

The reason for that is the unassailable first law of Newtonian physics: force equals mass times acceleration.  Mr. Newton also formulated the second law that an object in motion will continue to travel in the same direction unless acted upon by an outside force.  That inertia is what “throws” you forward when the car decelerates.  A child may have a relatively small mass, but when a car suddenly decelerates, as in a collision, that 20 kg multiplied by a deceleration of 50 km/h, results in a force of 1000 kg.  At higher speeds, say 70 km/h, a child can weigh the equivalent of 3000 kg, enough to send her flying through the windshield or to crush the person in the seat in front of her.  Imagine also what that kind of force can do to a child’s fragile body.

So how do we enforce the principle of safety first while riding?  The most important rule is that a child should be properly restrained while in a car.  Cars are designed to be operated and occupied by adults, so kids will need some accessories to ride properly: adaptors that allow the car’s safety systems to work for them as well.  That means a rear-facing baby carrier for infants, a rear-facing child seat for kids up to three years old (or 18 kg) and a booster seat for older children.

An infant or younger child needs to ride facing the back of the car to help protect her neck and spine, which have not yet developed fully and are especially vulnerable to injuries.  Notice how a three-month old child can barely lift her head.  The head accounts for 25% of an infant’s weight; for an adult, it’s about 6%.  If your head weighed 15 kg (for a 60 kg adult), you’d have difficulty lifting it, too, much less keep it upright during a severe impact.  Baby carriers and rear-facing child seats are designed to distribute collision forces throughout the back, which can take the strain much better than the neck.   

Parents should note that a baby carrier usually lasts for only about nine months before a child outgrows it.  Instead of buying, they can borrow one instead from a trusted friend or family member, as long as the seat is in good condition and hasn’t been involved in any accident. 

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