Child car-seat call

Press, 8 April 1978, Page 19

Child car-seat call

PA Wellington A Swedish road-safety expert believes that a carrestraint system where a child is strapped in the front seat facing the rear has saved many children’s lives. Called the Rearward Restraint System, it had been on the market in Sweden for 15 years, said Dr P. W. Arnberg in Wellington. During that time not one child had been killed or injured while using the system. The child’s seat is fastened to the floor of the car and leans against the dashboard. Dr Arnberg, of Sweden’s National Road and Traffic Research Institute, is on a brief New . Zealand tour to talk about his traffic-safe-ty research. He has been involved with child-restraint systems for some years. He said that the Rearward Restraint Svstem was preferred by the 80 per cent of parents who installed

special seats for young children. They liked to be able to look at the child and make sure it was securely harnessed rather than having to turn around to see it. Most found that having the child in the front with the driver did not disturb them. There were no regulations in Sweden that made it compulsory for children to wear safety belts but Dr Arnberg favoured some type of harness being worn. He would like to see Government issue cheap or free belts for children. The present cost of the Rearward harness was $5O. “It is time all countries make restrainer systems for all ages,” said Dr Arnberg. However, it seems that it will be some time before the Ministry of Transport concentrates on special child seats in cars. A senior research officer, Mr P. Hurst, told Dr Arnberg that he

thought it would be some time before child-restraint systems were introduced to New Zealand. The Ministry wants to concentrate on getting inertia reels and back-seat safety belts fitted in cars first. Dr Arnberg said that traffic research in Sweden had become more important since traffic had changed to driving on the right-hand side of the road in 1967. After the change, there had been a drastic drop in accidents, although the figure had crept up again. Drinking and driving was not considered to be one of the biggest problems since random testing by police had been brought in. Many people were now wary of being on the road and possibly being stopped by a policeman. Driving at night seemed to be the time when most accidents occurred. People were nine times more likely to have an accident if they drove between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m,