Today, for the first time in our country, a event to raise awareness of the importance of countermarked chairs (ACM), and that has been called "I Counter March Day in Spain". The conference, organized by Axkid, has been supported by the Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI), the insurance company, Folksam and several health professionals, including pediatrician Lucía Galán.
During the event, various experts in children's health and road safety have exposed the benefits of traveling in these types of restraint systems that, according to research, reduces up to 90 percent the risk of serious injury in the event of a collision with respect to the chairs placed in favor of the march.
Reduce child mortality on the road, everyone's priority
The main objective of this day, pioneer in our country, has been make known in-depth child retention systems to countermarch, in order to help reduce the deaths of children on the road.
In this sense, according to experts, traveling in a back-up chair would be up to five times safer than doing it in one facing the march.However, despite the studies and the real evidence, There is still much ignorance and myths surrounding the use of these chairs, as well as people who believe that beyond the baby stage they are not useful or necessary. In fact, in our country the use of countermarking is still very residual, unfortunately.
In Babies and more Seven (false) beliefs that lead many parents not to choose a back seat for their childrenFor this reason, both the organizers of the event and the people who have collaborated in making it possible, have wanted to highlight the vital importance of taking children to counterattacks as long as possible.
Among the audience were various organizations directly connected and involved in child safety in Spain, such as the DGT, Municipal Police and Fire Department of Madrid, Ponle Freno or the National Association of Child Safety, among others.
Sweden, a role model
The celebration of the event has counted with the support and participation of Swedish road safety experts, such as Tommy Petersson, one of the world's leading experts in the field of child safety in cars, and head of the Shock Laboratory of the National Road and Transport Research Institute of Sweden, and the researcher, Helena Stigson.
And it is that Sweden, with the lowest infant mortality rate (from 0 to 14 years) in traffic accidents throughout the European Union, is a benchmark in road safety. And much of it is due to Swedish commitment to ACM retention systems, employed by 85 percent of parents of children under four years.
"In Sweden we are very aware of taking our children to countertop for three reasons mainly: on the one hand, there would be the results of the investigations, which place these retention systems as the safest when traveling. Second, there would be the anatomy of the child, which is not the same as that of adults. And thirdly the real facts that we see on a daily basis "- explained Tommy Petersson.
In Babies and more The physical explanation of why back-up chairs are the safest option for travelAccording to a report prepared by the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) and based on international statistics from the Swedish Directorate General of Traffic (Trafikverket), if all the countries of the European Union had the same low levels of infant mortality in traffic than Sweden, 600 child deaths could be avoided per year on the road.
Why choose a chair in reverse: the experts explain it to you
The event has had the participation of various personalities in the area of road safety and health. In addition to the aforementioned, Tommy Petersson and Helena Stigson, other specialists such as Daniel Lundgren, head of security of the Axkid brand, Juana Zurita, expert nurse in pediatrics and spinal cord injury at the Hospital of Paraplegics of Toledo, pediatrician Lucia Galán and the nurse and partner Armando Bastida.
And these are some of the reasons that experts have given us to choose a car seat in reverse for our children:
Because the body of children is not like that of adults
Evolution of the weight of a child's head, from birth until it reaches adulthood "The head of an adult represents five percent of the mass of his body, while The head of a baby or child up to one year, represents 25 percent of its mass. If the child travels in favor of the march, in case of a traffic accident, his neck will be stretched with great force projecting his head forward and causing serious injuries "- explained Tommy Petersson.
In Babies and more, both babies suffered the same car accident: the one who was in a back-up chair came out unharmed, the other suffered serious damage"Too the vertebrae and spine of the child must be taken into account, since when they are small their bones are connected to soft tissues. This means that in the event of a collision traveling in favor of gait, the main injuries that are present in the head and cervical spine "- Helena Stigson said.
Because the weight of the body before an impact is not distributed equally in one chair than in another
The pediatrician Lucía Galán was able to experience what the children who travel both in favor of the march and in the opposite direction feel, in case of suffering a traffic accident. To do this, he placed himself in an Axkid simulator and explained his feelings to the audience:
"Traveling backwards in case of impact, the force would fall on the entire back and the whole body, without supporting any additional load on head and neck. However, when traveling facing the march, in case of impact all the force and pressure falls on the neck "
Because parents want the best for our children
Undoubtedly one of the presentations that has impacted the audience the most has been that of Juana Zurita, an expert nurse in spinal cord injury who has been working with children for years, some of whom have been victims of traffic accidents.
Juana has explained how the stretching force that supports the neck of a child in a traffic accident traveling in favor of the march, causes a Internal decapitation of fatal consequences. That is why, the physiotherapist Marta Erill, coordinator of the event and promoter of the campaigns "Not a little more in danger" and "Turn it over", it is clear:
"The vast majority of fathers and mothers of children under four years of age would not hesitate to immediately put them in the opposite direction to the march if they really knew the vital difference it makes. But they don't know it."How long to travel backwards?
Experts wanted to highlight that the safest way for a child to travel is to countermarch as long as possible, or at least up to four or five years of age (recommendation recently made by the American Pediatric Association).
In the market we can find a wide variety of countermarked chairs, some even up to 25 kilos. At the moment when the child no longer fits in this position, it must be placed in favor of the march in an elevator with backrest and fastened with the vehicle seat belt.
In Babies and More we are especially committed to the use of child restraint systems to counteract, therefore, we praise the initiative of this first event and wish that the information reaches a greater number of people.
