Usage of child car safety seat in Qatar: behaviors, knowledge, and attitudes

Road safety is a significant public health issue in the State of Qatar resulting in a huge humanitarian suffering for individuals, families, society and the government. Arab Gulf countries have a higher road accident fatality rate, highest is in Qatar, compared to North America and European countries. Qatar residents are five times more likely to die in vehicle accidents than from a stroke, representing the highest ratio in the world. The number of vehicle accidents has outpaced the country’s population growth over the past 18 years. Average of 65 percent of deaths in Qatar, are among children aged 14 and younger are caused by road accidents. Fifty-four percent of all deaths among children under the age of four in Qatar is caused by traffic accidents. Such death rate in the country is three times higher than the global average among children. Qatar National Vision 2030 aims at reducing road accidents and improve safety through a holistic strategy of raised awareness, better safety measures and firmer laws that achieve several fundamental and crucial objectives. Improved protection of children and young people who are significantly overrepresented in fatality statistics has been identified as a basic objective for the country’s’ national vision. The use of seatbelts and child restraints while travelling in a vehicle has been identified by the Qatari National Road Safety Strategy 2013-2022 as one of the primary ways of reducing death and injury. The national strategy will introduce high priority legislation on seatbelts in the rear of vehicles and the use of child restraints as a main action for seatbelt use.