In-car child safety scheme launched across Scotland

A major new in-car child safety initiative designed to raise awareness of the importance of correctly fitted seats and proper restraints for children launched across Scotland on 13 June.

The campaign is spearheaded by a consortium of public/private sector organisations including the Scottish Road Safety Campaign (SRSC), - the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland (ACPOS) and the Arnold Clark Group.

"The Scottish Executive is determined to reduce by half the number of children killed and seriously injured on Scotland’s roads by 2010," transport minister Nicol Stephen said. "We have already seen a very significant improvement but more needs to be done."

The initiative has been developed in response to in-car safety campaign research that showed that many parents were still not getting sufficient information on safety when purchasing new seats. Around 2,000 seats were checked at car seat clinics across Scotland and 40 per cent of these were not fitted correctly.

"The most recent figures indicate that more than 500 children under the age of 16 die or are seriously injured on Scotland’s roads each year," said Robert Ovens, deputy chief constable, Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary. "All of us involved in raising children need to develop our road safety knowledge and skills.

"This campaign is designed to focus attention on many issues surrounding in-car safety. All eight Scottish police forces will work alongside our various partners in an effort to significantly reduce child casualties."

A brand new ‘Good Egg Charter’ scheme has been introduced for Scottish retailers in order to champion safe selling practices. This means that participating retailers will guarantee to provide a high level of service to any customer purchasing new seats from them. The Charter criteria includes:

• providing a trained member of staff
  
• checking the weight and height of the child
  
• ensuring the seat fits the customer’s car as well as the child
  
• giving advice on fitting.
  

For further information about this campaign go to: www.protectchild.co.uk