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Children and Transport Safety

July 2, 2016
 Kristine Pakhomov 

Annually, in the world, 186 300 kids die in car accidents that makes over 500 kids per day. In accordance to the report about transport safety prepared by the Analytic Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia, 5 339 car accidents happened in 2012 in which 6 638 persons were injured and 605 – died, 18 of them were kids; 5510 car accidents occurred in 2013 with 7 734 injured and 514 dead, 22 of them were kids. In 2015, 602 kids died in the car accidents. 

President of the Georgian National Automobile Federation Shalva Ogbaidze said the high child mortality in car accidents is connected with the regulation gaps.

“The law of Georgia on Transport Safety regulates movement of pedestrians and/or vehicles. The law was based on the Geneva International Convention (1948-1969 Convention on Transport Safety with the additions from 1993). However, the law has some miscarriages which refer to its implementation and enforcement. The biggest problem is about guaranteeing the safety of kid’s transportation. With the adopted law the drivers and passengers are obliged to have safety belts on that at some point reduced number of dead and injured persons in car accidents. Article 26 of the Law on Transport Safety reads: “Children under 12 shall not be placed in the front seat of a car.” However, we often see that parents have their kids seated on the front seat and even more, there are fathers who love steering the car with their little boys on their lap in the busy streets of the city. I think it is not only violation of the law but also irresponsibility of the parents,” Shalva Ogbaidze said.
He underlined another serious gap in the law. “A child under the age of 3 can be placed in the back seat if she/he is in the lap flank of a person over 16 if the latter does not have more child on his/her lap.”

“If you are 16 or older and have a child on your lap flank, in the car accident the child may be stuck between the adult and the front seat that is very serious mistake and needs to be amended immediately. According to this provision, the law dooms the child to death instead trauma. Neither other regulations are enforced. For example, the regulations about transporting a child by car-seat.  Safety norms are not respected in public and private transports either,” the president of the Georgian National Automobile Federation Shalva Ogbaidze said. 

The parents, who often travel with their kids, say that it is difficult to keep children patient inside the car.
“Traveling with kids is particularly problematic by public transport. In Georgia it is absolutely impossible to travel together with children by bus or mini-buses,” a parent Mariam Elizbarashvili said.
The UN General Assembly developed main strategies of the action plan to enforce traffic safety in 2011-2020 which envisages the following: significant improvement of the highways and roads; repair and increase of number of public transport; to staff first medical aid brigades with high-professional personnel and ultramodern medical equipment; to adopt set of legislative changes, namely: a) speed limits; b) limit on the level of alcohol in blood; c) obligatory use of safety belts in automobiles and vehicles; helmets when driving bicycles and bikes; special car-seats and additional pillows for infants and children in cars; e) disciplinary, criminal and administrative liability if the law is breached.

“Elli Foundation” has been implementing charity project in Georgia for five months already, which promotes safe transportation of kids in Georgia. 
“Our goal is to make transportation of kids by car seats obligatory in Georgia. Our foundation gives car-seats to specially selected families for free and also provides them with free consultation how to install the seats in the cars. The Foundation has already presented 22 kids with the car seats,” a founder of the project Nino Gogotishvili told humanrights.ge.
According to the UN General Assembly, if there is a political will, it is possible to avoid car accidents and related injuries and mortalities among children. 

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