Families who can afford to buy a new car should be prompted and ultimately obliged to ensure that their children are using proper seat restrainers or booster seats

KATHMANDU, JANUARY 19

This is a piece that I wanted to write about since really long, but somehow it always got pushed back. Then on Sunday morning, before I came to know about the airplane crash in Pokhara, I had decided to finally put down my thoughts on it.

I was crossing the road, and I saw a couple of fancy SUVs moving ahead. In both cars, the passengers sitting on the front had a small child sitting on their laps. If you think about it, it's very common for small kids, even toddlers, to sit in the front with their guardians, but you should be aware that this is also one of the riskiest and most stupid things to do.

The reason is that the air bag, an often-vital safety tool that can literally protect you from dangerous hits, can also be a lethal tool, especially when the standard safety norms are not followed, including travelling with small kids on the front seat.

Internationally, there is a dearth of data about such incidents, but there is a simple reason: all in all in any developed country, it would be almost impossible to witness a small baby sitting on the lap of one of their parents while the other is driving. Yet this is something extremely common in Nepal and probably in many other nations with a very weak regulatory framework in matters of road safety.

Interestingly, this was also an issue, a long time ago, for the richest nations.

I found a couple of articles from the New York Times reporting about this problem.

One, written on September 18, 1996 is entitled "More Children Are Killed by Air Bags, and Parents Are Blamed" and the second, published in August 2001, is a follow-up piece on the same topic.

While the former was depicting a very grim scenario in terms of deaths and more risk to children if no actions were taken, the latter, "Child Air-Bag Deaths Drop; Parents Get Bulk of Credit" instead explained how change unfolded: "In 1996, passenger-side air bags were in about 22 million vehicles and they killed 35 children, according to the National Safety Council, a private nonprofit organization. Air bag use was growing, the council said, and so were fears about more deaths.'' We had an impending crisis,'' said Chuck Hurley, a council spokesman."

The article clearly explains how a sense of urgency made policymakers, auto makers and parents take drastic decisions to avoid more deaths.

"Every month more than a million cars with passenger-side air bags were being put on the road and the number of child deaths were projected to double annually, Mr. Hurley said, ''until we were killing several hundred children a year with a federally mandated safety device.'' And finally, the good news: "But in 2000, even though the number of cars equipped with passenger-side air bags had tripled, the number of children killed by them fell to about 18."

I am wondering how come an adult ready to spend millions of Nepali rupees for a fancy new car is not aware of the most basic safety protocols that come with it. Partly we should blame the regulations, or better the lack of them, but if cars are sold here from the international market, then we should make sure that those buying them are aware of how to use them, not just drive.

These days, even the most basic models are equipped with air bags.

There are also other factors concerning me about how people drive and use cars: seat belts are still not too common while it is very common for the driver to handle a mobile phone while driving. Such situations can have lethal consequences in case of an accident.

Do you remember how one of the most influential and famous business leaders in India, Cyrus Mistry, died less than a year ago? He was sitting on the back of his friend's car, something that we often assume that it is safe enough not to wear the seat belt.

Families who can afford to buy a new car should be prompted and ultimately obliged to ensure that their children are using proper seat restrainers or the socalled booster seats. These are, in practice, smaller seating arrangements on the top of the normal seating space that are appositely designed to allow a child to travel in total safety.

Car dealers also have a big responsibility on this part, and they should make sure that all the new car owners are well aware of the risks of not following the proper safety measures.

Perhaps, the same companies holding exclusive rights to sell branded cars here could also make an effort to import and include in the final price at least one of these special child safety seats.

As we are witnessing with the airplane accident in Pokhara, we know that death can be totally unpredictable and uncontrollable.

Right now there are hundreds of families who are mourning their dear ones.

For this reason, every time I see on the streets a fancy family driving in a fancy car with a beautiful small baby on the front seat, I really get upset. Why wait for a tragedy to happen before doing something really simple but smart? Money can buy you a nice car but cannot assure you the wisdom and the knowledge you need to enjoy it in total safety.

The regulators must do something to create awareness about an issue that could potentially cause many preventable deaths among small kids. The traffic police surely can raise the issue and stop those irresponsible and possibly ignorant parents who do not know yet how to guarantee the safety of their children.

If the safety equipment that are needed are not available in the country yet, then a small child or a toddler should travel only on the back and only if she will be properly seated and held and without having her moving loosely and freely because this can also be very dangerous.

Meanwhile I do hope this article can help people reflect and create some awareness about safe driving with minors on board.

Galimberti is the co-founder of ENGAGE, an NGO.