RTD waiting for 'green light' to enforce child car seat rules

The Road Transport Department (RTD) is just waiting for the 'green light' from the Transport Ministry to enforce the use of child car seats or child restraint system (CRS) in private vehicles.

Its director-general Datuk Seri Shaharuddin Khalid said to date, the department was only implementing advocacy programmes and a total of 1,897 warning notices had been issued since early this year until June 30.

"The child car seat or CRS is included under the RTD Act 1987 and the use of the CRS was initially scheduled to be enforced June this year, however, it was postponed by the government due to COVID-19 outbreak," he told Bernama at RTD headquarters here.

He said a total of 1,707 road crashes involving children had occurred between 2016 and 2018.

As such, Shaharuddin urged the people especially road users not to take this issue lightly.

"CRS is very important to children, especially babies, as they are easily exposed to serious injuries (during an accident)," he said.

-- BERNAMA