24/03/2017

Training to Traffic Enforcers in Maldonado on Child Restraint Systems

This event, organized together with the Municipality of Maldonado, was a milestone for the Fundación Gonzalo Rodríguez regarding the promotion of child road safety in the provinces.

More than 60 traffic police officers and officials from the eight communes participated in the event. 

The workshops allowed participants to exchange information about the correct use of child restraint systems accoring to regulations in force with Child Passenger Safety technicians Mathías Silva and Marcelo Alborés.

This activity was one of the first of a series of training session to the held in 2017 at national level, and together with different municipalities.

 It is through this type of activities that the Fundación Gonzalo Rodríguez and the Traffic Police Department of the Municipality of Maldonado aim to raise awareness and to make improvements on child transportation through a more effective enforcement.

The objective is to increase the alarmingly low rate of use of child and booster seats in the province (currently 23.9 %, three places below Montevideo, at the top of the list) according to the Observational Road Safety Behavioral Study in Uruguay 2016.

At national level only 23% of chlidren younger than 12 years old travel in a child restraint system. The percentage is even worse in children aged 6 - 12, where it only represents 3.2%.

The Fundación Gonzalo Rodríguez played a fundamental role in the promotion of Uruguay´s current regulations on Child Restraint Systems, as well as in the technical support regarding specifications of the regulatory decree, were recommendations by the United Nations are used as reference.