New regulations are to mandate that drivers must seat children under two in rear-facing or reclining safety seats installed in the passenger compartment, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday.
The proposed new safety regulations would also require children who are between two and four years of age and between 10kg and 18kg to use an infant safety seat, while explicitly stating a preference for rear-facing designs, the ministry said.
Current regulations only mandate rear-facing or reclining safety seats for infants under one year of age or less than 10kg, while requiring older and heavier children to use “some kind of safety seat.”
The new regulations raise the age of children who must use rear-facing or reclining safety seats so that they would be better protected in the event of an accident, the ministry said.
The American Academy of Pediatrics and other groups of experts agree that the rear-facing infant seats offer significant protection in an accident, while such devices have become widely available in the nation, it said.
The regulations on children under two would no longer mention body weight, as the average child weighs more than when the regulation was drafted in the early 2000s and most safety seats can accommodate a child weighing 10kg, it added.
The ministry expects the regulations to become effective by next year at the earliest, by which time the Bureau of Standards, Metrology and Inspection would have implemented a certificate system for infant seats that adhere to the new regulations.
