Ignorance of traffic regulations and parents' carelessness result in increase in number of accidents with children in Tatarstan
Number of accidents among children is growing during the summer holidays in Tatarstan, according to traffic police officers and doctors of clinical hospitals
Eight children and teenagers became victims of road accidents in Tatarstan for 5 months of this year — twice as many as in the same period of 2020. Statistics of road accidents involving young residents of the republic is steadily growing, traffic police experts noted on 23 June. Moreover, the number of accidents is increasing not only due to car accidents, but also when riding bicycles, scooters, and skateboards. Traffic police officers attribute the main reason to the carelessness of parents who, hoping for a chance, do not provide their child with the proper level of safety and equipment. According to the Tatarstan Traffic Police Department, in most car accidents, those children suffer and die who were not in a child car seat or were not wearing a seat belt at that moment. The number of visits to traumatologists after a child falls from a scooter or bicycle is not decreasing either.
Statistics of accidents with children is going up
From January to May of this year, more than 1,270 road accidents occurred on the roads of Tatarstan — less than last year's figure for the same period by 30 cases. Eighty-six people were killed in them and more than 1,500 were injured of varying severity. If the total number of road accidents has decreased at least slightly, then the number of accidents where children are injured and killed, on the contrary, has increased, deputy head of the Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Tatarstan Damir Bikmukhametov stated with regret.
“Despite the general decrease, the state of children's road traffic injuries is of particular concern: in 5 months, 168 road accidents occurred in the republic with the participation of children under 16 years old, in which 8 children were killed and 172 children were injured of varying severity. Compared to the same period last year, there has been an increase in all main accident rates.”
For example, the total number of road accidents with children increased by 45 cases, the number of deaths of children doubled, by 35 children were injured more than last year's figure, Bikmukhametov noted. Most often, children die in such accidents when the order of passage of the intersection is not observed, drivers violate the rules for the location of cars on the roadway and when the distance between cars is violated.
At the same time, in most accidents, it is child passengers who suffer. They, as the deputy head of the republican traffic police noted, “turn out to be hostages of the situation”. The negligence of parents who do not put their children in a special car seat or do not make sure that a child, if he is older than 12 years old, is fastened with a seat belt, often turns into a tragedy.
Today, Bikmukhametov reminded, there are as many as five types of child restraints — to every budget. And the price of child life safety cannot be compared with the cost of a car seat, he noted. He also reminded that it is possible to transport a child in the front seat of a car only in a car seat. Although, according to the amendments to the traffic regulations, a child can be in the back seat without a special seat, but be fastened with a seat belt, the republican traffic inspectorate still strongly recommends using a car seat or another type of device that ensures the safety of life.
According to the WHO, a child car seat can reduce the mortality of children by 54%, the risk of injury by 76%, serious injuries — by 92%. At the same time, in five months, traffic police officers recorded more than 4,000 cases of transporting children without special devices.
To reduce the sad statistics, the Traffic Police of Tatarstan sent a number of legislative initiatives to the Cabinet of Ministers and the republican parliament, which, according to experts, will discipline drivers. The list of measures includes mandatory transportation in children's car seats in the back seat of a child up to 9 years old (now — up to 7 years), the installation of a mandatory identification sign about the presence of a child in the vehicle, it is also proposed to limit the speed of a car to 60 km/h if a minor passenger is sitting in it.
Traffic police is switching to enhanced regime
Сhildren-pedestrians are considered to be the most vulnerable part of road users. In such road accidents, statistics show an increase: in 5 months, 79 accidents involving child pedestrians were registered, in which 80 children were injured — 11 more than last year's figure from January to May. Fortunately, no victims. Thirty accidents occurred due to the carelessness of young pedestrians. Moreover, most often the rules when crossing the road are violated by primary school students, Damir Bikmukhametov noted. Therefore, he called on both educational institutions and parents of schoolchildren to strengthen explanatory work with them and monitor where and what the child is doing, especially during the holidays. It is during this period that the number of road accidents involving children increases by almost a third.
Young cyclists are also notorious traffic violators. As the traffic police inspectors note, the banal ignorance of simple rules often leads to accidents among those who move on a two-wheeled iron horse. The fault of parents who do not provide the child with means of safe equipment and retroreflective elements is not diminished here either. They reduce the risk of drivers hitting cyclists by 6,5 times.
“Due to the increase in the number of road accidents, people killed and injured in them, the Traffic Police of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Tatarstan is switching to combat alert, and in order to prevent accidents, posts on the roads of the Republic of Tatarstan will be strengthened. Special emphasis will be placed on the suppression of violations that lead to accidents with serious consequences: driving while intoxicated, without a license, driving into the oncoming lane, and violating the rules of transportation of children," said Damir Bikmukhametov, the deputy head of the Republican State Traffic Inspectorate.
Riding without the protection and supervision of parents leads to a hospital bed
Summer is considered a rather traumatic period for children, not only in the statistics of the traffic police, but also medical one. Pranks, outdoor active games, racing bicycles or scooters often lead to injuries. According to the head of the Centre of Traumatology of the Children Republican Hospital, Lenar Dzumenko, the summer season is a particularly hot time for the clinic's specialists. Every day, 3-6 children aged from 3 to 14 years are brought to them with injuries of varying severity, which are received when riding scooters, 10-12% of them require surgical intervention.
The main cause of injuries is riding bicycles, scooters and skateboards without protective elements, Dzyumenko confirmed the words of the traffic police representative. When falling or hitting a hard obstacle, he added, children usually get fractures or severe bruises of the arms and legs, head bruises and concussions: “Schoolchildren are now the most active, they ride without parents, unsupervised, so these types of injuries most often occur.”
Vladimir Ivanov, the neurosurgeon and head of the Department of Neurosurgery, decided to warn parents that serious head injuries that children receive due to the inattention or carelessness of their parents often lead to post-traumatic events and to serious consequences at a more mature age or disability, and this is for life.