16,000 affected by campaign to promote seat belts, child safety seats

Since September last year, Buckle Up in the Back has reached out to about 16,000 students and parents on the benefits of seat belt and car seat use.

Lesley Cully and her daughters, Esme, 6, left, and Lydia, 9, putting into practice the campaign Mrs Cully launched. Jaime Puebla / The National

ABU DHABI // An initiative that promotes seat belt and child car seat use has reached out to about 16,000 students and parents in the past school year.

Lesley Cully, founder of the Buckle Up in the Back campaign, visits nurseries to get the message to parents through their children.

She explains how parents take care of eggs yet fail to buckle up their children. She then discusses height and measures children against a chart to show them who needs a car seat and why.

“I ask all parents to think of their children as an egg,” Ms Cully said. “Most people wouldn’t put a box of eggs in their car without care because they know it would smash easily, yet they put their most precious cargo, their children, in the back without any thought.”

Older students and corporate executives who attend her safety lecture are shown graphic accident footage. Topics discussed are speed and the science of how seat belts protect people.

“Many parents think their child can stop using a car seat when they are about four years old,” she said.

“What they need to understand is that a seat belt in the back of a car is designed for an adult. This means a small child will have a seat belt fitting across the neck, which encourages the child to put the belt under the arm or behind their back, which is incredibly dangerous.”

Seat belt and car seat use among children increased by 12.6 per cent after the Buckle Up presentation, a recent exit survey revealed.

“An overall 78.8 per cent of respondents said a school presentation influences their decision whether to use a seat belt,” said Ms Cully, who set up Buckle Up in the Back. “Since the campaign started in 2010, I have presented to just under 60,000 people.”

Not enough attention is given to buckling up in the back, especially for children.

“Studies have shown that 63 per cent of all child deaths in the UAE are a result of a car incident,” she said.

In an attempt to reverse this alarming trend, Buckle Up in the Back has been advocating laws requiring back-seat passengers to buckle up and making child car seats mandatory.

“We have been saying this for more than four years now: introduce the rear seat belt and child car seat law, enforce the law regularly and consistently, and educate people on the law so people understand why,” she said.

Last March Buckle Up introduced an initiative that showed outcomes of road accidents – life in a wheelchair, living with epilepsy, and the daily struggle of a colostomy-bag user – all consequences that could have been avoided if the victim had been wearing a seat belt.

The advertisements, with the tagline “If you don’t wear a seat belt you’re going to need all the help you can get”, will appear in taxis and hire cars.

“These have been designed to make passengers, particularly in taxis, to stop and think about the possible consequences of not wearing a seat belt,” Ms Cully said. “I hope to roll out in September, starting with Dubai with a view to spreading it to the other emirates as soon as possible.”

Harder-hitting images in the cinema, radio ads, police patrols with larger fines, and more campaigning and publicity on the use of rear seat belts and child car seat laws are needed, she said.

“Buckle Up in the Back is not a six-week and six-month campaign,” she said. “It’s all year round and works hard to promote the importance of wearing a seat belt and using an age-appropriate car seat.”