Travelling exposes children to unfamiliar people and environments. And sometimes, driving can become dangerous as accidents can happen anytime of the day. This is why ensuring the safety of children when travelling is paramount.
When driving, various risks may be involved, such as collisions, unfamiliar environments, or potential health hazards. As parents, you must prioritise safety to minimise these risks and protect your children.
To ensure the well-being of your children, here is a comprehensive guide for car safety you can follow:
Understand Basic Child Seat
Being conscious that your child is safely tucked in a car seat provides peace of mind while traveling. It lets you focus on driving without distractions or worries about your child’s safety.
Most countries, including the UK, have specific child passenger safety regulations. The UK car seat law states that the use of a child car seat is necessary until they are 12 years of age or 135 cm tall. As a parent, you can either choose based on your children’s height or weight.
Failure to obey these laws can result in fines or penalties. You can be issued with a £60 fixed penalty and three penalty points if you fail to use child restraints. Consequently, the penalty could go beyond £500 if this goes to court.
Keep Hazardous Toys Away from Children
Before travelling with kids, select safe and suitable toys for your child’s age. Look for toys that are not hazardous, as this can ensure they will be safer while you drive.
Since you are driving, monitoring them all the time can be harder, so ensure that you avoid choking incidents on the road.
Keep in mind that many toys have small parts that can pose a choking risk to young children. So, to keep them safe, you can choose toys larger than your child’s mouth to avoid choking. Conversely, avoid giving them toys that shoot objects in the air, as these can cause injuries.
Never Leave Your Child Alone in the Car
For whatever reasons you may have, leaving your child alone in the car should never be an option. Although it may be tempting to run some errands while your child is sleeping in the car seat, leaving them can have dreadful consequences.
Leaving your child unattended in the vehicle, whether for short or prolonged periods, puts them at risk of heat stroke, dehydration, accident injury, or worse, suffocation that can lead to death. Cars in direct sunlight can reach extreme temperatures, hitting 71 Celsius, enough for a young child to suffer from hyperthermia.
Install Window Tints
For maximum protection, you can invest in window tinting in Sunderland. Since the sun’s rays is in its strongest condition between 10 in the morning and 4 in the afternoon, being protected while driving is necessary.
Window tint films can be an added layer of protection against harmful UV rays. This can also hold the window’s glass from shattering when a collision happens. So, this ensures that your child will be safer.
Conclusion
It can be challenging to monitor children while driving, so travel with caution. Ensure that you are well-versed with car safety measures before you go anywhere. This will help you prepare and become more at ease when you drive.
Where to get your windows tinted?
If you are eyeing for a trustworthy company offering window tinting in Middlesbrough and other UK locations, you could always go to Global Tint UK. Contact us at 0800-158-8005 for a free quote today, or you may fill in our contact form.
