Oman transport: Safety seats drive launched for children

Muscat: A massive social media campaign on awareness of strapping kids into car seats will be launched next week.
Under the hashtag #Safety_seats, the Children First Association, along with Royal Oman Police (ROP) has distributed 200 car seats to families with children so far. The hashtag was on Oman's most trending topics for around 24 hours.
“We are calling upon companies in Oman to help us buy more seats to provide them to families,” Shaker Al Raisi, the association’s spokesperson said.
Twitter users showed a remarkable support to the campaign.
Some of the users shared pictures of their little ones strapped into a car seat. Another twitter user said: “I think the awareness campaign should be followed by traffic fines and reduction of the car seats’ prices,”Oman’s legal experts and road safety campaigners have been raising awareness on the issue in recent months.
Ali Al Barwani, chief executive officer of Oman Road Safety Association, (ORSA) said that a new law is vital to combat child deaths in car crashes in Oman, the Times of Oman reported last week.
He pointed out that even minor accidents can kill or seriously injure a child.“It is puzzling me that parents can afford OMR7,000 cars but are hesitant to purchase a OMR30 car seat,” he said, explaining that money “was never the problem”. ORSA is working closely with local hospitals to raise awareness among new parents about the importance of providing newborns with car seats, according to Al Barwani.
Earlier this month, an expatriate father lost his four-month-old baby girl, Rushda Fathima, in a tragic car accident in Sur.
“I will never drive a vehicle without having child restraints when travelling with children. I beseech everyone to take all safety measures while travelling with children. I have lost my child. I don’t want others to suffer the same way,” he said.