Sharjah: Families in need and new mothers were given 366 car seats for children in Sharjah as part of the child safety campaign.
A recent initiative by the Child Safety Campaign (CSC), in collaboration with the UAE Federal Traffic Council (FTC) aims at ensuring better safety for children commuting in cars, and offer them better protection against the risk of injuries or fatalities caused by road accidents.
The partnership between CSC and FTC was realised through an agreement signed on Sunday by Major General Mohammad Saif Al Zafeen, head of FTC and Assistant Commander-in-Chief for Operations Affairs at Dubai Police and Hanadi Saleh Al Yafei, Department Director at the Supreme Council for Family Affairs (SCFA), and Head of the Organising Committee of CSC. Also present was Major-General Saif Al Zari Al Shamsi, Commander-in-Chief of Sharjah Police
The agreement aligns with the dedication of both entities to ensure the physical and psychological safety of children in the emirate, thereby reducing the rate of causalities arising from road accidents. The step has also been taken to ease motorists into the new FTA law that requires all drivers to use car seats for toddlers and seat belts for older children.
Major-General Al Zafeen said: “The agreement that we signed with CSC aims to further promote awareness in community, and draw the attention of families to the importance of adhering to safety procedures while driving with infants and children on board.”
Major-General Al Shamsi said that the initiative also seeks to communicate awareness messages to the community, especially to parents, about the importance of providing the highest safety measures to their children in vehicles to reduce the chances of causalities in case of accidents, as well as increase road safety rates.
Al Yafei said: “This initiative in partnership with the UAE Federal Traffic Council and in coordination with the Sharjah Police Headquarters is our first humanitarian endeavour in the Year of Zayed.” Al Yafei underscored that World Health Organisation statistics indicate that 1.25 million people die because of traffic accidents every year.
She added: “The focus of this initiative is placed on ensuring children’s safety while they are travelling in cars, given the fact that road accidents account for a great number of fatalities worldwide, with youngest passengers being the most vulnerable.”
She pointed out that the distributed car seats comply with the highest international standards of safety, and have been approved by the Emirates Authority for Standardisation and Metrology.
