Be clever, be safe, buckle-up to stay alive
Always set a good example by wearing your safety seat belt in your vehicle while travelling and by so doing, you will be saving lives. “Emergency strikes when least expected.”
The festive season is here, and many families will be travelling long distances to different areas across the country to be with their loved ones while others will be visiting places of interests for this upcoming holiday season.
City of Ekurhuleni Disaster and Emergency Management Services (DEMS) would like to share safety driving practices to the motorists to lessen the statistics of fatal crashes happening on our roads. It has come to their attention, while attending vehicle crashes on the roads, that many fatalities are as a result of drivers and passengers not buckling-up while travelling. Most vulnerable is that of children not placed in their rightful and correct restraining travelling seats specially made for their tiny bodies.
It is a common practice that motorists still travel with children placed in the front seats without safety devices. Some motorists still drive vehicles with children placed in between the steering wheel and themselves while driving. Children are still allowed to stand in-between the two front seats without safety precautions taken into consideration.
What does the law and safety practices say regarding the vehicle safety?
• Legislation stipulates that everyone in a motor vehicle should wear a seat belt while the vehicle is in motion.
• It is the driver`s responsibility and legal obligation to ensure that children are buckled up in a vehicle child restrain safety seat or seat belt where available.
• It is not safe to carry your baby or child in your arms while the vehicle is in motion.
• Children placed on a person’s lap in the car are highly exposed to intense injuries or even death even if the vehicle is travelling at the speed of about 60 km/h when that vehicle comes to sudden stop or is involved in a crash. In some instances, babies and children are ejected from the vehicle through the windscreen or windows of the vehicle.
• Unrestricted children are prone to crash against the interior of the vehicle when it comes to a sudden stop and can be fatal.
• Never buckle two children in one seat belt. It is a dangerous practice and could lead to serious injuries.
• Travelling unrestricted in vehicles such as bakkies and station wagons is also dangerous.
Emergency services officials are rolling-out Buckle-up campaigns around the City`s business malls, toll gates on the N17 freeway, filling stations around Albertina Sisulu and N3 freeways respectively and to different major taxi ranks across the City. The campaign started on December 4 and will run till mid-January 2020.
Emergency services plead with motorists to be cooperative because this is for everyone`s safety.
For any life-threatening emergency, call the local emergency and disaster management call centre at the following numbers below:
• 10177: national toll-free number.
• 112: cellphone.
• 011 458 0911: Life-threatening Ekurhuleni emergency line.
