PETALING JAYA: When a road accident is triggered by a child opening a car door, the legal consequences rest with the parents or supervising adult, say rights groups.
Child rights activist Datuk Dr Hartini Zainudin said a toddler cannot comprehend the risks posed by traffic or moving vehicles.
“A child’s action may trigger an accident but the legal and moral responsibility rests with the adult.
“The child should be in a car seat,” she said when contacted.
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In Malaysia, the use of child car seats is compulsory under regulations enforced by the Road Transport Department (JPJ).
Hartini questioned if the child had been properly restrained and whether the child lock mechanism had been engaged.
“Why is the child not strapped into the car seat? Where is the child lock proof? It’s a lapse in safety precautions,” she said, calling for a stronger safety culture driven by public education and consistent enforcement.
Hartini said education must be layered according to age and that supervision must be constant.
For children aged two to four, lessons should be simple and repetitive: “Wait”, “Hold hands” and “Only open when mummy or daddy says”.
Children aged five to seven can be taught that cars cannot stop suddenly and that they must always ask before opening a door, she said.
Role-playing safe exits can also help reinforce behaviour, Hartini added.
“Education complements restraint. It does not replace adult control,” she said.
Children’s Commissioner at the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia Dr Farah Nini Dusuki said child lock mechanisms must be used “regardless of how inconvenient it is because safety comes first”.
“It is primarily the parents’ or adults’ responsibility to ensure children are adequately restrained, whether by car seats, booster seats or seat belts once they attain sufficient height,” she said.
Farah Nini also urged parents to instil road safety habits from infancy.
Parent Action Group for Education chairman Datin Noor Azimah Abdul Rahim said the issue extends beyond awareness alone.
“It is a mix of affordability, convenience, behaviour and enforcement.”
Prevention, she added, hinges on making compliance affordable through subsidies, understood through education, normalised through social behaviour and expected through enforcement.
