Children as old as 13 wearing seatbelts incorrectly

Friday 09 March 2018

Children as old as 13 still don't know how to use a seatbelt properly and could be risking their lives, a road safety group has claimed.

A survey by the Jersey Road Safety Panel showed that a third of children in Year 8 - aged between 12 and 13 - were wearing the in-car safety device incorrectly.

As many as one quarter of the 412 pupils the Panel questioned during recent workshops admitted they occasionally forget to wear their seatbelt.

Those figures are similar to those recorded last year, and Philip Blake, Road Safety Officer and Panel Secretary, says they show there is still work to be done. "We collect this kind of data every time we do a seatbelt input. The figures are always pretty consistent, there is always roughly a third of pupils saying they don't wear their seatbelt correctly or not at all. If those figures were going on, I would think of another topic to discuss but the results prove there is still a lot to be done in terms of education," he said.

In their workshops, the group aims to help pupils realise how important it is to put a belt on by using videos, photos and role play. They also show pupils real images of crashes and their outcome to help them understand the consequences and "make it more real" for them.

"The bit they don’t realise is that because many of them aren’t tall enough to wear an ‘adult seat belt', which is designed for someone who is 1.5m tall, they will tend to move the diagonal part of the belt around their back or tuck it under their arm and the lap part will rest on their stomach instead of their lap. Using a belt like this can cause serious injury in the event of a crash," he added.

But children are not the only ones to wear their belt incorrectly, he explained. "A lot of adults don't appreciate that how they put their seatbelt on matters. Women, for example, if they are too tall or too small, they will have the belt sitting over their breasts. If you are driving at 30 mph, the king of force involved is significant, it would be up to 3.5 tons. This can cause a lot of damage to the breast and some women will need reconstruction. The way you wear your seat belt is as important as the fact of wearing one."

The Road Safety Officer added that some parents are too quick to move their children out of a booster seat - sometimes quicker than their body is ready for. "Parents are under constant pressure from the child who says 'I don't want the booster seat, I'm big enough.' But what they don't realise is that if the child is wearing an adult seatbelt when they are too young or too small, it will cause unnecessary injury in the case of a crash. For example if the lap part of the belt is sitting over the stomach, it will cause serious injury to the stomach. if the belt is tucked under the child's belt it cause damage to the internal organs because it doesn't fall on a strong bony part of the body."

The Jersey Safe Roads website recommends the use of a high-back booster seat only if the child is at least four or weighs at least 15kg. A cushion booster can then be used from six until the child is 11 or measure 1.5m. Mr Blake would like to see Jersey catch up with the rest of Europe and make this a legal requirement. He says: "All over Europe it is part of the regulation. The high back booster seat guarantees that the diagonal part of the belt is in the right place. 

Pictured: Some parents are taking their children out of booster seats too early, Mr Blake said.

"The legislation is not as up to date in Jersey as the law says that after the age of three parents can put their child in an adult seat belt. We are way behind. Of course a lot of moms and dads want to know what the law is but I tell them it is not the safest possible. It is the bare minimum. Of course, a child is better off in an adult seat belt than nothing, I would never tell a parent not to use a seat belt at all. But ideally, at least until the child is 1.5m, they should be in a booster seat with a high back."