John Williamson: Grandparents are best at keeping kids safe in the car

Research has shown having grandchildren in the car affects grandparents’ emotions and driving behaviour for the better. Photo / 123RF

• Eighty-six percent of child car seat restraints checked at a Whangārei workshop needed correction, highlighting safety concerns.
• Grandparents are urged to buy new restraints and have them professionally installed for under-7s.
• Research shows children are 50% less likely to be injured when driven by grandparents, despite less optimal restraint use.

Two comments in the report from Northland Road Safety Trust manager Ashley Johnston stood out: “77 child car seat restraints were checked out, and 86% needed correction. We had everything from a 5-day-old baby to plenty of grandparents who were scratching their heads at the confusing installation required for these seats.”

The report was about an after-school restraint check workshop held at three Whangārei locations as part of last month’s Road Safety Week.

It’s concerning that the line-up of concerned parents and grandparents had so many failures. It also makes you wonder about those who did not know about the workshops, or who are less vigilant about how their children are transported.

But this column is about grandparents.

Being a grandparent brings a whole new dimension into your life and the responsibility of safely transporting this next generation is a later consideration. You often hear of retired people shifting to new locations in order to be close to, or spend more time with their grandchildren. So, what is it about grandchildren that causes besotted behaviour?

Well, you are available as a carer before and after school, and as a source of advice, reassurance, love and maybe money. In return grandparents have all the fun but none of the responsibility, and you can relive your childhood in a much older and wiser way. When it comes to transporting this precious cargo though, that’s when the lack of responsibility ends.

New Zealand law identifies that the driver is responsible for making sure any child under 7 is properly restrained in a car seat that is appropriate for their age, size and development. There were rules about how they are installed and used that have the potential to confuse. It’s a worry that 86% of child seat restraints are installed incorrectly, and that child car restraints turn up in op shops with no certification or instruction about how they should be installed or used.

TradeMe has rules about listing car seat restraints which include: not being involved in an accident, has no sun damage, has no cracks or mould or rust, there is no fraying of the straps, and that the date of manufacture is less than 10 years ago.

Grandparents who need or want to transport their under-7-year-old grandchildren really need to buy a new child restraint for each stage of the child’s development and have it installed professionally by a qualified technician. That is easier said than done and explains why there were so many confused grandparents at the Road Safety Week workshops.

The issues of grandparents transporting kids is not straightforward. Some parents have different views about the relative safety of their parents’ driving, and the restraint that is installed may be a different make, model and orientation than the ones installed in their own cars.

As well, parents who are ultra safety conscious about the safety of their children may not appreciate that the grandparents are a generation removed from that, and that the rules and type of child restraint have changed meantime. There is a shared anxiety issue here.

But really parents should not worry. Some 2011 research done in the US investigating grandparents driving grandchildren indicated that, while grandparents tend to use child restraints in a less than optimal mode, their child occupants are 50% less likely to be injured in a crash than when driven by the parents. Questions were raised here about relative driving speeds and distraction from mobile phones between the different generations.

This research was expanded upon in 2016, when an Israeli project found that having grandchildren in the car affects grandparents’ emotions and driving behaviour. Less careful drivers are found to adopt a more careful driving style when with their grandchildren. Risky and more anxious drivers felt more tension when driving their grandchildren, and consciously drove more safely.

Furthermore, parental intervention was found to heighten tension among grandparents. This heightened tension, alongside less angry and more cautious grandparents’ driving styles, were associated with more positive attitudes to child restraints.

So there you have it. This precious cargo is as safe if not safer in the car with their grandparents as with their parents, so long as both vehicles always use correctly installed certified child car seat restraints. Another big tick for grandparents’ roles in their grandchildren’s lives.