Preparing best practice recommendations for safely restraining children travelling in cars
Neuroscience Research Australia and Kidsafe Australia are conjointly coordinating a multidisciplinary team of specialists, experts, road safety and public health stakeholders from state and federal government agencies, consumer organizations, researchers, injury research organisations, industry, advocacy, and other special interest groups to develop best practice recommendations for safely restraining children travelling in cars.
The purpose of the guidelines is to provide evidence-based and nationally consistent recommendations and model advice on how best to safely restrain children up to 12 years of age. The guidelines will include details about
- What restraints to use (child restraints, seat belts)
- How to use them correctly
- Where children should sit in the car
It will also formulate model advice on how to deal with specific situations that might make meeting best practice recommendations and/or legislation problematic. The guidelines will aim to reduce parental confusion and conflicting messages and work to reduce transmission of well-intentioned but inaccurate information through informal networks, forums etc.
These guidelines have been drafted making use of current restraint types available on the market in Australia, as defined by the Australian Standard for child restraints, AS/NZS 1754 (2010). While some provision has been made for changes in the new edition of AS/NZS 1754 that is currently open for public comment, those restraints are not currently on the market and the evidence base for these new restraint types is limited.
Neuroscience Research Australia and Kidsafe Australia advise as follows
We invite you to make a submission on the contents of the guidelines documents.
We encourage you to bring the documents to the attention of any group or individual you believe will be interested in making a submission.
These guidelines are a draft proposed for submission to the NHMRC for approval under section 14A of the National Health and Medical Research Council Act 1992
The Guidelines are available for viewing at: [www.neura.edu.au/CRS-Guidelines]. Copies can be mailed on request (see below for contact details).
How to Make a Submission
Responses and comments on the Guidelines should either be submitted to Neuroscience Research Australia either via email or post.
Responses should be made on the Response Form available from [www.neura.edu.au/CRS-Guidelines]
N.B. Electronic submissions are preferred.
Online
Once you have completed the Response Form please save and email the document with “CRS Public Submission” in the subject line to:
Email: NationalGuidelines@neura.edu.au
By Post
Postage address: CRS Guidelines Neuroscience Research Australia PO Box 1165 Randwick NSW 2031Australia
If you have any further questions regarding the Best Practice Guidelines on the Safe Restraint of Children Travelling in Cars, please contact:
Mr Stevan Nikolin, Project Officer Ph: (02) 9399 1093 Email: S.Nikolin@neura.edu.auClosing Date
5pm AEST Friday 26 October 2012