Child Restraint Systems to be Mandatory in 2020, This NGO comments
Following YB Anthony Loke’s statement that the government will regulate and enforce the use of child restraint system beginning 2020, the NGO, Child Passenger Safety Malaysia issued a statement of their own.
It reads as follows:
“This is the news that CPSM has been waiting for ever since our inception two years ago. CPSM has been urging the government and authorities to take a firm step by advocating and encouraging the public especially parents to use child safety seats such as infant carriers, convertibles or boosters for their kids in vehicles.
Mayhem involving transport vehicles is the number one cause of death for children between the age of 0 to 14 years old in 2016 (Department of Statistics Malaysia report published in 2017) and according to PDRM Crash Statistics Annual Report of 2017, there were 449 road passenger casualties involving children between the age of 0 to 10 years old.
We are delighted that Transport Minister Yang Berhormat Anthony Loke takes a serious view on the safety of children in vehicles and decided to embark on a new dimension in child passenger safety in Malaysia by making child safety seat compulsory in two years time.
Today, Child Passenger Safety Malaysia (CPSM), an NGO working towards raising awareness among the public on the importance of using CRS and child passenger safety in general, welcome the stand made by the YB Minister.
We hope that CPSM will be included in the discussions by the Ministry and respective road safety agencies on the planning and execution of the campaigns as we have at least around 30,000 parents, under our database, that have been supporting the ‘Rakyat Malaysia’ movement for safer roads and travelling for children.
From today onwards and until the day CRS or child safety seat to be regulated fully in 2020 and beyond, CPSM will be working harder to convince parents and also persuade the public at large to embrace child safety seat as the way forward for our future generations.
To echo the advocacy plan by the Transport Ministry and Road Safety Department next year, CPSM has already lined up several campaigns such as the ‘Child Passenger Safety Technician Certification’ course in April 2019, among others, with the aim to increase the number of trained advocates of child passenger safety in Malaysia.
CPSM has charted a few advocacy programmes and communication plans beginning this month and until the implementation of compulsory usage for child safety seat in cars with continuous persuasion techniques and simple message to parents that a child also deserves protection in a car.
CPSM will step up the effort by conducting safety seat checks on child safety seats purchased and used by parents in several states starting from the northern region in the first quarter of 2019, to teach and guide parents to install and use child safety seats the correct way.
There will also be community talks and classes and also articles about child passenger safety in several publications. We also hope to increase CPSM’s social media reach by more than 50% by March 2019 targeting urban parents, for a start.
We look forward to continue our mission to educate the public together with prospective partners and sponsors which include renowned manufacturers of child safety seats as well as automotive players in the country.
We won’t rest on our laurels. Safety for kids should always be a priority and be a part of Malaysians culture while travelling even for a short trip or long haul in any type of vehicles.”
About the Author
Subhash Nair Written work on dsf.my. @subhashtag on instagram. Autophiles Malaysia on Youtube.
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