Look For These Stickers On Car Seats (It Means They Passed Safety Standards)

Tomorrow, February 2, 2021, the Philippines will implement the Child Safety in Motor Vehicles Act, requiring motorists to install car seats for children to make roads safer for minors.

The law mandates that passengers under the age of 12 years old, 4'11" in height and below, should be secured in a CRS or Child Restraint System.

Child car seat now mandatory in the Philippines 

Mandatory compliance, or enforcement for motorists, will begin tomorrow, officials and safety advocates said.

In the "initial phase" of enforcement, motorists will be given printed materials on the law, said Roberto Valera, deputy director for law enforcement of the Land Transportation Office.

The "initial phase" will last for three to six months, after which violators will be apprehended, he said.

"The enforcement is not just about apprehension it involves information dissemination and warnings.

"We will be on warning mode as well as information dissemination," Valera said.

The "Child Car Seats Law" (Republic Act 11229) was signed in 2019. Before the mandatory enforcement on Tuesday, government agencies ensured that child car seat standards were set.

In 2018, 12,487 people died on the road, that's 34 per day or one per hour, according to lawyer Daphne Marcelo of advocacy group ImagineLaw. Among children, 1,226 died on the road in 2017, or around 14 per day, she said.

"Your embrace is not enough," Marcelo said, likening the CRS to a cushion that can protect an egg from breaking.

Regular seatbelts are not enough to secure children who are in danger from being ejected from the vehicle in case of a crash, she said.

Read here how to position your baby's head in a car seat.

How to choose a car seat?

The seats must have a PS mark or ICC sticker, Valera said.

Look for these stickers on the car seat to check if it complies with the new law, said Louise Palmes, who represented the Department of Trade and Industry's Bureau of Public Standards at the Zoom call.

Palmes also said DTI has an Android app that can check the QR codes on the ICC marks to check whether the ICC sticker is fake.

Read more here how to choose a car seat

Penalties for child car seat law violations

Drivers who are caught without a child car seat or who don't use such seats properly will be fined P1,000 for the first offense, P2,000 for the second offense, and P5,000 and one-year driver's license suspension for the third and succeeding offenses, Valera said.

Those who are caught using expired or substandard child car seats will be fined P1,000 for the first offense, P3,000 for the second offense, and P5,000 and one-year driver's license suspension for the third and succeeding offenses, he said.

Those who are caught engaged in the manufacture, distribution, import, retail, and sale of substandard or expired car seats will be fined between P50,000 to P100,000.

This story originally appeared on Reportr.World. Minor edits have been made by the SmartParenting.com.ph editors