Yesterday the Spanish Alliance for Child Road Safety (AESVI) was presented at the Congress, a forum formed by experts whose objective will be to protect minors when traveling by road and fight so that no child suffers serious or fatal injuries due to an accident.
In 2015, 25 minors died in traffic accidents, and although since 2004 the number of children killed and injured on the road has been significantly reduced, the AESVI's goal is to get zero fatalities.
Figures that should make us reflect
Children are especially vulnerable when traveling on the road, not only because of their particular physical conditions (we must not forget that children are not "miniature adults" as far as proportions are concerned), but because their safety depends on the adult who transports them.
Hence, 40 institutions have joined under the name of AESVI, in order to raise awareness of the importance of the proper use of child restraint systems, as well as work to reduce road victims to zeroBecause, although in recent years the numbers of children killed and injured by traffic accidents have decreased considerably, it is still not enough and the data that is still being considered has to change:
Nine percent of children do not carry any child restraint system, especially in children. short journeys, commented yesterday Carlos Lancha, director of Marketing and Communication of RACE (Spanish for Child Road Safety).
40 percent of adults transporting children in small municipalities they don't do it with the proper security systems, they alert from the DGT
25 percent of children over five years old no longer uses any child restraint system in the vehicle
Good use of child restraint systems protect the child from 70 percent injuries
The Director General of Traffic, Gregorio Serrano, yesterday claimed a chilling fact:
In the event of a traffic accident at a speed of 40-50 km / h, injuries caused to a child traveling without a chair or with an inadequate restraint system would be equivalent to falling from a third floorSo, information, prevention and example by adults They are key to improving the road safety of children.
What objectives does AESVI have?
All the experts that make up this forum they will work to prevent and investigate traffic accidents in which minors are involved. Its objective will be to look for formulas that reduce the risk of injuries and deaths of children in their journeys by road.
The different working groups that make up this Alliance have assumed the following commitments:
- Improve the training of sales professionals of child restraint devices.
In this way, it is sought that any chair seller has a specific preparation on risk and injury prevention, and advises each family in a personalized way, depending on the child and its characteristics.
- Will follow researching and promoting technical studies that improve safety and reduce the risk of children on the road.
Part of this research will be carried out by universities which make up the Alliance (University of Zaragoza, Polytechnic of Madrid and Polytechnic of Catalonia), which will investigate traffic accidents from a technical and biomechanical point of view, in order to find the causes that minimize the number of injured or deceased.
Similarly, the three RACE, RACC and RACVN car clubs will continue to participate in the preparation of the European Report on the Evaluation of Child Restraint Systems, as well as preparing cawareness raising among parents through driver education programs.
- Inform users of the use of child restraint systems and safety belts through informative awareness campaigns.
This communication work will be carried out both by associations of fathers and mothers of students, as well as by police and state security bodies through dissemination in schools, or pediatricians and midwives, who will inform in the courses of preparation for childbirth or in Healthy child screening programs.
And at this point, hospital pediatricians will pay special attention to informing parents about the best child restraint systems for newborns, premature babies, children with congenital malformations or disabilities, whose physical needs are different from those of other children.
The Office of the Coordinator of Road Safety will also work to protect children with rare diseases.
Travel by school transport and buses safely
Special mention deserves school and motorcycle transportation, to which the same importance does not seem to be given socially as transportation by private vehicle. However, from AESVI work will be done to promote measures that protect children also in these circumstances.
Mikel Garrido, President of the National Association of Child Safety, yesterday presented really alarming figures: 550,000 children use daily school transportation in our country but only the 42% of buses wear a seat belt.
However, these types of safety belts are not intended to protect the child in the event of an accident since it is an abdominal belt and not three points. Working on the safety of children traveling by bus will also be one of the Alliance's priorities.
Who integrates AESVI?
AESVI is made up of 40 institutions that will work in different plots of action in order to achieve the objectives described.
These institutions include manufacturers of child restraint systems, the DGT, the Servei Català del Trànsit and the Traffic Department of the Basque Country, the main automobile clubs in Spain (RACE, RACC and RACVN), primary care pediatricians and hospitals, the National Association of Midwives, Bodies and state security forces, universities, the Public Prosecutor's Office of Road Safety or associations of fathers and mothers.
In Babies and More Child Chairs misused in the car, more common than we think, An unprotected baby in the car receives the same impact as a fall from a third floor, ECE R129 Standard or i-Size for car seats, What does the new phase take effect for us? The best and safest child seats of 2017, according to the RACE, Are the carrycot for the car safe ?, Parents warn about the importance of using the car seat : the seat belt cut off the middle of his 6-year-old daughter's abdomen
