The Transport Department will implement new measures to increase the safety of children by fining parents who don’t strap children in their car seats.
From May, parents who do not strap in toddlers under the age of three will be slapped with a traffic fine. This regulation will be introduced by the National Road Traffic Act to protect children on the road.
More than 40 people lose their lives on South African roads daily – and three to four of them are children.
Spokesperson to the Minister of Trasnport, Tiyani Rikhotso said traffic officers will be enforcing this new regulation on the roads and during roadblocks.
“Up to now there was no penalty for motorists whose children were not in their baby seats or had a seat belt on. We are covering a very important area which was exposed for some time.”
Awareness campaigns are expected to be launched across the country in the following weeks.
Imperial and 94.7 collect donated car seats for children across the country annually with the Seats for Kids campaign. According to a study conducted by Imperial, more than 250 children die every year in South Africa because they were not strapped in their car seats.
Niki Cronjé, group marketing officer at Imperial, encouraged all South Africans to pledge their used car seats to the campaign. “The stats clearly show that there exists a need to increase education around not only strapping a child in, but also ensuring that their child is placed in the correct seat for their weight.”
