Children in Cars

Here in UAE we have noticed that most of the time the children are not strapped into any sort of seat belts, let alone baby seats. Q and I often gasp at the sight of kids running around wild in moving vehicles and sticking their little heads from the back seat row to the front.

A couple days ago I saw one that was the case at its worst display. As a car was pulling away from a parking lot, I saw the driver (I'm guessing the father) was holding a baby with one arm and steering wheel in another, and the baby was only too happy to drink from its milk bottle. The mother sat in the seat next to the driver, and she had a little boy standing in front of her knees. Yeah, what a great family outing! ...NOT! (Sorry, that was my Borat imitation slipped out.)

This is particularly a problem if you read the news article today that apparently there were over 240,000 accidents reported last year on Dubai roads alone, and that is about one every two minutes. I only hope the local authority will start some awareness campaign sooner rather than later.