As part of Qatar’s Kulluna (“all of us”) safety campaign, Hamad Medical Corp. is holding a community car seat check-up event on Saturday, March 2 at Katara Cultural Village from 9am to noon near the dovecotes.

Families interested in learning more about car seat safety and installation are invited to attend by booking an appointment with Rachel Morris by calling (+974) 5561-1072.

Those attending the event will need to bring their car; car seat, if they have one; and their child(ren).

Traffic deaths

Last year, an HMC official said that more than half – some 54 percent – of deaths among children who are up to four years old in Qatar are caused by traffic accidents.

“In almost all the cases, the victims are those traveling on the front seat, without wearing a seat belt,” Rafael Consunji, a consultant at HMC’s Trauma Department, said during the launch of the Kulluna car safety campaign last fall.

Currently, there is no law requiring parents to restrain their children in car safety seats in Qatar. The country’s National Health Strategy 2011-2016 calls for providing mothers of newborns with car seats at the time of their discharge from the hospital, but lawmakers have yet to move on this requirement.

Thoughts?

Credit: Photo by Jim Champion