Strapping Down Death Rates

Fifty-four percent of all deaths among children under the age of four in Qatar are caused by traffic accidents, according to a study by Dr. Esmat Zaidan, a Qatar University professor.

Another source, Sidra Medicine, says that they treat 90 children who have been critically injured in car accidents in the span of six months.

This number is three times higher than the global average among children, according to the Qatar National Road Safety Strategy, and Qatar is throwing millions into funding to reduce such high numbers. From campaigns in the Hamad Emergency Room to collaborations between Sidra Medicine and Weil Cornell University in Qatar, the efforts to encourage child safety car seat use is endless. However, despite all these initiatives, there is still no law implemented concerning the use of child car seats. According to reports from 2016, there had been plans to implement such a law, however; three years later, Qatar has yet to do so.

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Despite being aware that they are putting their child at risk, many parents still refuse to restrain their children in car seats. Some families cannot have car seats for each of their children due to most cars only being able to comfortably carry two seats per car. For Yesser Zakzouk, a mother of four, having a car seat seems nearly impossible. Like many parents, she would only use them when there was no one else in the car to hold her child.

“I would only use them when I had to drive alone, sooner or later, I got a house-worker who would hold my children for me,” Zakzouk said.

Some parents even believe that a car seat is actually more dangerous than being unstrained, despite that being scientifically-proven wrong. Zaidan said that most parents are “lazy”, and do not want to go through the effort of buckling up their children at every car ride.

She says that parents often say, “my own parents didn’t use car seats and nothing happened to me” as an excuse to not use car seats for their own children’s safety.

Photography by Xiahanqing Wu

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One of the efforts that Hamad Corporation is doing to educate parents about child car seat use is Ghalai station, which is located in the Women’s Wellness and Research Center, and another one to open soon in Sidra Medicine.

The main goal of Ghalai is to encourage child car seat use by placing professional car seat technicians who will help parents in setting up their car seats for their children. The station is a drive-through, making it easier for hesitant parents. The technicians also inform the parents on how to use the car seat as well as the expiration date of their car seat.

However, despite the easy access to the station, many parents still do not pass by. Adrian Mayo, an instructor at Ghalai station, says that, on a busy day, a maximum of five parents passes by.

Dr. Zaidan attributes this due to the lack of awareness about the station, saying that it’s a good initiative but is useless if not many parents know about it.

In her research paper about Behaviors, Knowledge, and Attitudes of Usage of Child Car Safety Seat in Qatar, Dr. Zaidan argues for a bottom-up solution rather than top-down. This means that the government should place efforts to study parent’s behaviors, knowledge, and attitudes about car safety seats in order to develop an appropriate solution rather than targeting the entire society all at once.

Qatar is going through fundamental changes in recent years, and protecting children by increasing the use of child car seats is part of the National Vision of 2030.

Despite all the campaigns and programs, the decline in parents not using child car seats is not enough to bring down the death rates of these children. Therefore, a law should be implemented to force parents to take the correct steps into protecting their children. Children are the future, and they deserve to grow up, safe and sound.

(Co-edited by Tanieshaa Shrestha and Danah Zakouk)