Study on Child Restraints in the Philippines

A recent survey of 1000 drivers in the Philippines found that:

• 18.5% of drivers are aware or have heard of child restraints prior to the survey.
• 9.3% curently use child restraints, and 19% replied yes to the question, “Have you ever used child restraints/child car seats?
• 6.2% among the 1,569 child passengers of respondents use child restraints.
• Drivers have little knowledge on the age, weight, and height recommendations for child restraints.

Aside from low awareness, respondents raised issues such as the lack of legal requirement to use child restraints, low speeds meaning that restraints are not needed, lack of availability, and expense, as reasons why they did not use child restraints. An article about the survey debunks some of these myths.

The use of child restraints dramatically increases a child’s chance of surviving a road crash. If correctly installed and used, child restraints reduce deaths among infants by approximately 70% and deaths among small children by between 54% and 80% according to WHO. In the Philippines, where more than 500 children die on the roads every year, increased use of child restraints could have a significant effect.

Read the article HERE.