In your arms does not mean safe!

“In your arms does not mean safe!” is the key message promoted by Moldova’s Parliamentary Speaker Mr. Adrian Candu in a new social video on the importance of using child car restraints produced by EASST partners the Automobile Club of Moldova (ACM) as part of their Keep your kids safe in cars! project.

As national road safety ambassador, Mr. Candu and his family agreed take part in a short film, urging society to be more responsible on the roads and transport children safely by using special seats or other types of restraint or adaptation systems in their cars.

In 2013, the Moldovan government passed new traffic legislation introducing the mandatory use of child restraint systems, tailored to relevant age and physical characteristics, for all children under the age of 12. This includes the use of booster seats, enabling seat belts to be fastened safely and correctly. Any violation of this law will result in penalty points on the drivers’ license. Still, in 2016 there were 387 registered road traffic collisions that involved children. 15 children were killed and 406 were injured.

In 2016, the ACM conducted a survey of over four hundred parents dropping their children off at school to evaluate the extent to which this law is being followed and enforced. They found that, of those cars stopped, only 33 per cent were fitted with adequate child restraint systems tailored to the age and size of the children using them. 59 per cent had seatbelts with 92 per cent confirming that they are used “always” or “usually”. 8 per cent of parents admitted to not using restraints at all.

The ACM launched the Keep your Kids Safe in Cars! project in May 2017. The campaign aims to promote the use of child car restraint systems and kids safety in transport across Moldova through a series of initiatives to raise public awareness and engage national public authorities and relevant non-governmental actors about child restraint systems, and to improve the culture and responsibility of parent-drivers for their child-passengers.

The campaign is being implemented by ACM in partnership with the Federation Internationale de l’Automobilisme (FIA), FIA Foundation, EASST, the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova, Ministry of Internal Affairs, National Patrolling Inspectorate, Ministry of Education, the Swiss project REPEMOL, “Oratorul” Theater, General Direction of Public Transport Chisinau and a number of driving schools.