Background: Child road traffic injuries are a major global public health problem and the issue is particularly burdensome in middle-income countries such as South Africa where injury death rates are 41 per 100,000 for under 5′s and 24.5 per 100,000 for 5–14-year-old. Despite their known effectiveness in reducing injuries amongst children, the rates of use of child restraint systems (CRS) remains low in South Africa. Little is known about barriers to child restraint use especially in low- and middle-income countries. Methods: We carried out observation studies and parent/carer surveys in 7 suburbs of Cape Town over a three month period to assess usage rates and explore the knowledge and perceptions of parents towards child restraint legislation, ownership and cost; Results: Only 7.8% of child passengers were observed to be properly restrained in a CRS with driver seatbelt use and single child occupancy being associated with higher child restraint use. 92% of survey respondents claimed to have knowledge of current child restraint legislation, however, only 32% of those parents/carers were able to correctly identify the age requirements and penalty. Reasons given for not owning a child seat included high cost and the belief that seatbelts were a suitable alternative. Conclusions: These findings indicate the need for a tighter legislation with an increased fine paired with enhanced enforcement of both adult seatbelt and child restraint use. The provision of low-cost/subsidised CRS or borrowing schemes and targeted social marketing through online fora, well baby clinics, early learning centres would be beneficial in increasing ownership and use of CRS.
BackgroundChildren pay little attention to safety signals when crossing the road with their caregivers and are given little opportunity to learn through supervised participation. Even though caregivers are seen as the key model of safe pedestrian behaviours, they do not involve their children in safe pedestrian decisions as they tend to traffic. Road safety education is recognized as central to teach children to interact with traffic safely.ObjectiveThe study evaluated the use of a simulated road environment to reinforce skill-based training for increasing safe pedestrian behaviours.MethodsOne hundred and fifty children aged 8–10 years participated and were recruited from a public primary school in Cape Town. Pre- and post-training tests evaluated the effectiveness of the training. Road traffic inspectors’ role modelled the pedestrian safety behaviours alongside the learners using a mobile pedestrian robot in the school road environment. Participants were educated on the management of the pedestrian robot and its related rules on crossing the intersection.FindingsChildren behaved more safely following training, demonstrating that brief training can produce short-term improvements in pedestrian behaviours. Significant reductions were found post-training for incorrect road-crossing responses (45%).ConclusionResults indicate that learners were receptive to the short and medium-term tasks, but long-term retention need to be promoted. Adult led learning are considered as powerful instruments due to the influence of social interaction on modelled behaviours. Caregiver involvement continues to be seen as influential agents in the practical application of a simple training procedure for pedestrian interventions.Policy implicationsA simulated road environment proved beneficial to transfer knowledge to promote children’s behaviour in the real environment; and bridging research into practice. An innovative approach to research and development is advocated for, and it must be transformed by practitioners to further promote the quality and utility of the disseminated road safety information.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
customersupport@researchsolutions.com
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.