For an adult, it’s a simple three-second process to make it click, and the modern car tells you if it hasn’t happened.
The mind boggles about how some adults can do up their seatbelts before sitting down, then sit atop them just to stop the in-car noise.
This seems to be some throwback to the anti-vaxxer, civil rights-type protest which suggests “no government has the right to coerce us into taking care of ourselves”.
As one US academic put it: “If eating what we wish is our business and not governments’, then why should we accept governments coercing us to wear seatbelts?”
But taking care of children in a car is an entirely different matter.
Parents, grandparents and anyone else who transports children in their cars have a huge responsibility to those children, and that is what the Open Justice account regarding Crystal’s death was all about.
Crystal had been placed in her child capsule with the safety harness done up underneath her. Her mum forgot to tie her in. She, unrestrained in her capsule, was then placed, rear-facing, in the front passenger seat of the car. The capsule was held in place by the passenger seatbelt.
Crystal’s mum, who had consumed methamphetamine the day before, was distracted while driving by Crystal’s chuckles and crashed.
The airbags deployed and ejected the unrestrained Crystal into the upright passenger seat. She died at the scene.
The coroner’s report highlighted everything that went wrong. It included the fact Crystal’s mum was convicted of being in charge of a vehicle while under the influence of a controlled drug causing death. She was sentenced to nine months’ home detention, but that really isn’t the issue here.
Crystal’s parents were loving parents. They wanted to do things right, but they now have the continuing horror of being responsible for the death of their baby.
According to an expert in child restraint techniques who assisted the coronial inquiry, up to 85 per cent of child restraints used in New Zealand are either installed or used incorrectly. Police checks often confirm that.
A reported two-week campaign in Canterbury, during which police and Plunket visited preschools across Christchurch, found that of the 275 child restraints checked, almost half were either not up to standard or installed incorrectly.
The law relating to child restraints in cars covers the correct installation and anchoring, its expiry date, how it is operated and the correct manner of restraint for the size, weight and fit of the child.
As the child gets bigger, the type of restraint changes from infant to toddler to a booster seat.
The operation of the restraint itself also requires constant vigilance. A child wearing a puffer jacket may be in danger of slipping out, and children can be naughty and slip themselves out, creating both a distraction and further danger.
Restraint management with multiple cars and drivers can be a pain, but who would want to be responsible for the death of a child?
The coroner concluded: “Crystal’s death is a tragic and poignant reminder of the importance of the correct use of car restraints. A staggering number of parents have not been properly taught how to use this safety equipment, and I call for better education on the issue.” Amen to that.
John Williamson is the chairman of Roadsafe Northland and Northland Road Safety Trust.
