Over half of all parents are putting their children at risk of serious injury or death by failing to use car safety restraints, it was claimed today.
Mr Eddie Shaw, chair of the National Safety Council, said parents would not willingly place their children in danger but that was exactly what was happening.
"The risk to a child who is not restrained in a car which hits a solid object at 30 miles per hour is the same as if a person holding that child held them out over a fourth floor balcony and let go," he warned. "It is the equivalent of dropping a child 35 to 40 feet and in most cases is terminal."
Between 1998 and 2002, around 2,527 children under the age of 14 were killed or injured while travelling as passengers in cars.
"It is completely preventable by using child safety seats and restraining appropriately," Mr Shaw said.
The Minister for Transport, Mr Cullen, who unveiled the National Safety Council's booklet, warned drivers now face up to four penalty points on their licence and a fine if convicted in court of allowing young people to travel unrestrained.
Chief Supt John Farrelly, head of the Garda Traffic Bureau, said gardaí on the streets were cracking down on drivers who allow passengers to travel without seatbelts. "The driver is legally responsible for people under 17 years of age travelling in the car," he said.
"If [a seatbelt] is not worn in a collision then the child becomes like a catapult and are thrown forward, and apart from obtaining horrific injuries they can kill the person in the front wearing the seatbelt anyway," Chief Supt Farrelly said.
The National Roads Authority last year revealed almost six out of ten parents still do not strap their children into the rear seats. The booklet, Child Safety in Cars, A Guide to Selecting and Fitting Child Restraints, showed that between 1996 and 2000 almost four out of five children fatally injured on our roads were not wearing seatbelts.
Mr Shaw also warned that studies have shown that two-thirds of child car seats were incorrectly fitted, and could result in serious injury to a child.
The booklets will be available from schools, crèches, Garda stations, local authorities, garages and doctors' surgeries.
PA