After review, Malaysia’s Women, Family and Community Development Ministry has suggested placing infants in the front seat of the vehicle, bunking the universally accepted suggestion that children be placed in a rear-facing car seat until they outgrow it.
According to Minister Rohani Abdul Karim, the ministry’s debunking of the long-accepted safety measure came after serious review of parental negligence that resulted in the deaths of five children and infants since 2016.
Other suggestions to parents were to place children aged five and below in car seats; to place infants on the front seat while fastened with a safety belt; and not to place children on the back seat, especially behind the driver’s seat, because it is a blind spot.
While cases of parents unwittingly leaving children behind in locked cars is certainly tragic, one might wonder if the best solution is to place the child in even more danger by putting their seat in a far more dangerous position, should an accident occur (a far more like scenario than say, forgetting your child in a car.
Since 2016, until now, March 2018, five children have tragically died in this fashion. In 2016 alone, 7,152 people died in road accidents in Malaysia.
Studies have found that children younger than two are 75% less likely to be killed or injured in a motor accident if sat in a rear-facing seat.
Bear with me those that love reason, logic and anything post-Enlightenment: seeing as the likelihood of an accident is literally a thousand times more likely than forgetting your kid, shouldn’t we be protecting ourselves against that outcome?
Can absent minded parents tie a string around their fingers and use Post-Its? Honestly, we aren’t trying to be rude, but there has to be a better solution than putting your child in more danger.
