Nesbitt warns parents to keep kids belted up

Environment Minister Dermot Nesbitt has warned parents to make sure their children are wearing seat belts, after it was revealed that Northern Ireland has one of the worst road safety records for children in Europe.

According to departmental statistics, only the Republic of Ireland, Belgium and Portugal had a worse record than the north and currently around 30% of children between five and 13 years of age still travel unrestrained in the back of a car. The Minister warned that parents should be aware that children are more than twice as likely to be killed if they are not securely strapped in.

Mr Nesbitt said: “There is a perception among some parents that children in the back are safe, that the seats in front somehow protect them. This is wrong. Take a few seconds, that’s all it takes, to make sure everyone in the car, back and front, is properly belted up."

Supporting the appeal, Superintendent Ian Hamill said: "We warned last year that we would be moving from a policy of mainly giving advice and warning to one of mainly issuing fixed penalty tickets. And we have been doing just that. In the 12 months to 16 July of this year almost 10,300 fixed penalty tickets were handed out. That is almost 40% more than in the previous year. We certainly want to encourage everyone to wear a seatbelt, but let there be no mistake about it – we are determined to continue our robust approach to enforcement.”

However, there have been some successes in the fight to ensure car occupants wear their seatbelts. Recent statistics reveal that the percentage of drivers found to be wearing a seatbelt had risen to around 90% as of April this year.

More worrying though is the take-up of seatbelts in the backseat, which, despite showing an 11% increase to 72% in the four years to April, still represents less than three quarters of those spot checked. It has also estimated that on average approximately 20 deaths and 250 serious injuries could be avoided each year if all car occupants wore seat belts.

Overall, the ratio of people travelling in cars and wearing seatbelts has risen for 84% to 88% since April 1998.

(GMcG)