Placing children on their backs in the car can save their lives

The child restraint systems for cars they are obligatory and very important, but are they placed in the direction of the march, or unlike this one? According to the SRI consultant and spokesperson in Spain of the Swedish road safety model, Cristina Barroso, putting children with their backs to the march increases the probability of them leaving unharmed in the event of an accident by 500 percent.

This expert says that if the car stops suddenly while the child is traveling in front of the march (and held by a chair), his whole body is projected forward. However, since the chair is attached to the seat and the child's torso is tied to the chair, the only thing that moves with such force is his head, which could lead to that the child's neck breaks.


For this reason, he explains that everything that is not "holding the head to prevent stretching of the neck" could cause "a very serious injury to the child". Something that occurs, according to Barroso, "not necessarily at high speeds, because in young children, the size of the head represents 30 percent of the total body and the neck is composed mostly of cartilage. "

Install the chair backwards to the march

It is not the same when you install the chair back to the march. According to this expert in an interview with the news agency Europa Press, When the chair is installed with its back, it is the backrest that makes all the effort. "The head is supported on this and the neck does not stretch, so the child does not suffer damage," he said.


It is for these reasons that he insists on ask parents to place the child with their back to the march, Remember that placing it in front exposes you to a great risk that, if you have an accident, suffer serious or fatal injuries even if you are driving at a low speed.

Distractions at the wheel

Although this expert is bluntOthers do not think the same. For the expert technician of PONS Seguridad Vial, Octavio Ortega, taking the child with his back to the adult prevents him from checking at a glance the child's condition, which It can lead to the driver being distracted.

According to Ortega, when the child goes in the back seat of the car and in the opposite direction to the march there is "very little control over the child" on the part of the adults who go ahead. Thus, he comments that if the driver hears a noise that comes out of the chair "he does not know if the child is laughing or, for example, he is drowning", which distracts him from driving. "With the child moving a little, adult restlessness is generated and it can be more dangerous, "he argued.


Some criticisms that are not accepted by Barroso, which ensures that they are based "on subjective questions of all kinds ". According to her, in Sweden, which is one of the countries with the lowest accident rate, children up to at least four years old are sitting on the opposite side of the road.

"Nor is there any official study that reflects an increased risk of back impact injuries from traveling in counter-march chairs; nor the study that reflects that the child gets sick more for traveling in that way; or that the legs are injured by carrying them folded, "says the expert, mentioning some of the main criticisms of this way of carrying children in the car.

Vial education

Against those parents who do not comply with the regulations on road safety, Barroso bet on education. According to her, if there was more clarity and there was more precision in the messages, the parents would be "more aware of the risks and, as with other issues, they would adopt effective security measures without the need for a law that obliges them ".

In this way, this expert bet on teaching and convincing instead of punishment, a point on which Ortega agrees, which is in favor of continuing road safety education and, even, "as a subject" in schools, an issue on which there is already an ongoing initiative.

"A person since the card is removed does not have a recycling beyond the campaigns in the media," warns the adviser of PONS Road Safety, which is committed to It would be good if drivers received "touches" from their own children indirectly through the training that would be given to children.

How to choose Child Retention Systems

Today the market has a huge variety of Child Retention Systems, but such variety does not always mean quality, and these two experts have talked about this, explaining how difficult it can sometimes be to know how to choose the best SRI. On the differences of one and the other, Barroso advises to pay attention to his capacity of protection, not of retention.

"A chair will be safe when, in addition to retaining, minimize the risk of injury potential in the most frequent and damaging type of impact: the front, "explains this expert, adding that when choosing the chair must also take into account the age, weight and height of the child.

According to this expert, children under four should travel with chairs facing the opposite side of the march and, from this age, move to what is known as group chairs two and three, which are elevators whose use can be extended until children reach 150 centimeters in height.

When choosing the child restraint systems, parents usually have some common faults, mentioned by this expert.

1.- Bad choice of chair: bEither because it is too big or too small or because, in the case of children under four, parents place them facing the march with a harness or shield system.

2.- Incorrect installation.

3.- Errors in the adaptation. Chairs change as children grow, so it is common for parents to fail in the size of the chair or in the adjustment of the harness or seatbelt.

In conclusion, discards that more money is synonymous with greater security. According to Barroso, there are chairs with a high price whose effectiveness is lower than others that do not require a large outlay. Therefore, he mentions that the average price of an effective chair round 350 euros for devices up to four years old, and 200 for those that are for children up to 12 years old.

Angela R. Bonachera

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