Editorial: Yes, it's child abuse

Always use a seatbelt.

Before I had children the most precious thing I carried in my car was my morning flat white. Driving in London, you never get up to much speed and have to brake a lot in stop-and-start traffic. Often my car windscreen would get a caffeine wash as coffee would fly out of the cup.

If slight braking in crawling traffic sends liquid flying, imagine what happens in a crash, even at 30km/h. Adverts warn us how crash test dummies are bent double on impact, apples are pulverised and necks snap.

It amazes me some people are blase about wearing seatbelts, knowing these consequences.

Adults who don't restrain children in cars are making a decision for young people that could kill them.

Yesterday, Anita Moran reported how an unrestrained 3-year-old boy fell out of a car on a Tauranga road after he was put in the back without a car seat. It is unclear whether he was even strapped in. Luckily he only suffered minor injuries.

What surprised me was the statement of Tauranga police sergeant Simone Mills who said: "It was a traffic matter and there was no signs of abuse."

We associate child abuse in this country with kids swung on washing lines or a child bashed so hard her jawbone protruded from her face. Abuse is a Nia Glassie or Coral Burrows, murdered at the hands of people entrusted to care for them.

My in-laws used to roll their eyes at what they called the "paraphernalia" that we had to go through for a simple car trip, telling me in their day they would have four kids and a dog and the shopping in a Beetle and no one was strapped in.

Maybe they did, but there were not as many cars on the road back then, nor as powerful or fast.

While some people think that the laws on child restraints are over the top, other people simply can't be bothered.

The simple fact is restraints save lives and prevent injuries. The law is tightening on November 1, extending the use of mandatory restraints until a child is 7. I hope the police enforce this. Although the penalty is a fine, leaving a child unrestrained could cause them as much harm as if you set off in your car drunk.

As Plunket told our reporter, there is simply no excuse for a child not to be properly restrained in a car. It is not only illegal not to do so, it is irresponsible, and yes, it is abuse.