15 February 2007

LARSOA calls on Police to enforce safety seat laws

LARSOA is calling on all UK police forces to enforce the new child car seat laws after three forces have chosen to opt out of fining drivers who break them.

The Local Authority Road Safety Officers' Association is angry that any force would decide not to enforce the new regulations which were introduced to protect children from harm.

Forces in North and South Yorkshire and Greater Manchester have said they won't fine offenders.

The new rules, which came in last September, say children aged under 12 and less than 135cms (about 4ft 5in) must use the correct car seat for their weight.

Simon Ettinghausen, Chair of LARSOA, says: "Drivers who choose not to restrain their child passengers properly are putting those young lives at risk. They could even be said to be neglecting or abusing these children.

"We urge the police to enforce these regulations. Making sure children are correctly restrained can make the difference between life and death. It is estimated the new regulations could prevent over 2,000 child deaths or injuries nationally each year.

"Children are not small scale adults. Their heads weigh up to a third of their whole body weight and it takes many years of development before they reach adult proportions so they can be terribly injured in a collision if the seat belt is not in the right place."

And LARSOA has praised forces which have combined education with enforcement to ensure drivers get the message, such as Cleveland which has already issued 49 penalties relating to the offence, Kent has issued 28 and Derbyshire, 17: "This law is not a trivial one and should be enforced. We have to do everything in our power to protect child passengers."

Ends.

Notes to Newsdesks/Reporters: For further information please contact Alison Ferst on 01287 610404 or 07779 435794.

ABOUT LARSOA

• LARSOA is a national road safety organisation representing road safety officers (RSOs) employed in local government across the UK.

• LARSOA represents 185 of the 200 eligible local authorities across the UK, assisting RSOs to fulfil their statutory role to reduce the number and severity of road casualties through education, training and publicity programmes.

• LARSOA publishes an up-to-date round-up of road safety news from across the UK on its website www.larsoa.org.uk .

• LARSOA also aims to influence national debate - government policy and action together with public opinion. The association works to achieve national recognition for road safety issues, commissions research into behaviour which contributes to road collisions and develops national road safety campaigns.

• The association assists in identifying achievable national targets to reduce the number of collisions on the country's roads.