Protecting precious cargo: free child seats for families in need
Infants and children are among our most vulnerable road users, they rely on their carers to safely buckle them into a car seat that's right for their age and size. Getting this right is vital, regardless of a family's income.
The NRMA report, Fund Child Seats, is calling for improved education, funding and incentives to be made available to families in need to help shift child road fatalities towards zero.
In the last 10 years, 148 child passengers aged between zero and seven years were killed in road traffic crashes in Australia. The tragic reality is that road traffic crashes are the leading cause of death for Australian children between one and 14 years of age.
A deeper dive into statistics also shows overrepresentation of fatalities for young children from low socio-economic backgrounds and Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander communities.
What does the NRMA want?
The NRMA is calling for the following measures to help save young lives:
- Government funding for free child car seats and professional installation for low-income families and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families.
- Child car seat diversion programs designed to help educate parents on how best to restrain children in the appropriate child restraint for their age and size, offered to all drivers who receive an initial infringement notice for a child who is not properly restrained.
- Car seat diversion programs must have long-term sustainable funding with additional support programs for people with financial hardship to help access a free child car seat.
- Child restraint installation should be a mandatory program for every council and include targeted fitting days for disadvantaged community members.
- Funding through councils to ensure that all residents with children can access free child car restraint checks or installations, including a dedicated service for disadvantaged community members.
- Better education for buyers and sellers on safe and compliant second-hand restraints that can be bought, sold or handed down.
RELATED: Everything you need to know about child car seats
Breaking down the numbers
A NSW Ombudsman review into the deaths of 66 children found that more than half (35) were not properly restrained and almost a third could have been saved if they were properly restrained.
The mortality rate for children in disadvantaged areas is five times higher than the least disadvantaged areas and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child passengers die at four times the rate of others.
NRMA Road Safety Expert Dimitra Vlahomitros said the initiatives outlined in Fund Child Seats operated in some jurisdictions but should be adopted right across the country to protect children who were at most risk on our roads.
“We know that children from disadvantaged and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families are over represented in crash statistics so supporting them in getting safe child restraints and information on how to properly install them is key to saving lives," Miss Vlahomitros said.
The penalty in NSW for unrestrained children is three demerit points and a $352 fine. Across 2021/22 over 1,800 drivers were fined for not having a child properly restrained in NSW.
