When I get affronted, aggravated, agitated, aggrieved, angered, annoyed, cross, disgruntled, displeased, exasperated, frustrated, galled, irked, irritated, miffed, peeked, peeved, rankled, riled, ruffled, ticked-off, upset, or vexed. When someone or something gets on my goat, gets on my nerves, gets on my wick, gets under my skin, gives me the hump, browns me off, brasses me off, ruffles my feathers, or leaves me not best pleased... my response tends to be sharp.
The weird thing is, that mostly I take offence not at what is happening or can happen to me, but the disastrous consequences I see emerging for others, and never are these scenarios more evident than on the road, and no, not speeders, tailgaters, loonies or hoons, but Mums and Dads.
In 2017 the Royal Oman Police implemented stringent traffic laws on seat belts and child safety seats to help reduce number of fatalities in road accidents. These measures were widely praised in a World Health Organization 2018 Report on Road Safety, which identified child restraints as being significantly effective in reducing the risk of injury and death to child occupants by a massive 60 per cent, with children under four years of age, the most vulnerable. The report commended that child seats were made compulsory for those under four, while children under ten years, must be in seat belts, in rear seats.
Today, so often, I cringe when I still see kiddies and children, clambering all over Mum and Dad as they are driving, standing, and playing on the front seats, playing on front and rear seats, hanging out of windows and sunroofs... I have cringed seeing little kiddies sitting on Dad’s lap while he is driving. Now the reality, and make no mistake, this is a reality... of this situation is that if an accident occurs in any of these scenarios, is that the child, or children, will be seriously maimed or die! Not taken from you, but because of your carelessness!
Now that may well sound harsh, and be hard to read or hear, but it is the truth, and do you really want to gamble with your kids’ lives? I do not come from any position of superiority in this, but a volatile position of concern. I have heard all the reasons why not, from “Our families are bigger,” to “they cry and get upset,” to “they will be okay Inshallah,” and these are all parenting failure excuses, not reasons, and I have been down that road myself, when they were made compulsory in my home country, where we had the same opposition, and the same excuses.
But parents, in this, no matter how much you do not wish to antagonise your children, you must. You cannot defer this issue to their children, or make the children responsible for compliance... This, parents, is your call. Are you prepared to gamble with the lives and futures of your offspring? Do not gamble! Educate your children to “make it click.” Set a good example yourself... make your seat belt “click” and encourage them to do the same. Motivate them to do it right with praise and rewards but make it “click!”
The NTSA in America credits seatbelts and child restraints with saving an estimated 90,000 lives each year since legislation was passed in 1975, based on real, genuine, accident statistics. Can you really ignore such statistics and advice? Do you really, really, really believe that if another car hits yours without warning you can reach across, or back, and prevent your child or children from harm? No, you cannot! You are not that good! Nobody is!
As I said earlier, the law was implemented in 2017, and I expect an informal grace period was applied to allow car seats to be bought, and children to be educated in car safety. That time must surely be over, and the concerned authorities should now do the right thing... and save young lives. “Make it Click!”
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