Belting up - is that all to it?
I read Giddy Tiger’s post on baby car seats and how Malaysia has finally made it mandatory, as at 1 June 2008 for all rear seat passengers to belt up. This came as a pleasant surprise to me, as for years I have often wondered if Malaysia would even think of enforcing such a ruling. But, if you are in Malaysia and you don’t own a new car, chances are your car won’t have a rear seatbelt.
Can one install more seatbelts just in case?
Well…yes! They have three years from June 1st, 2008 to installing new seatbelts. Now…isn’t that just a way for car manufacturers, insurers and banks to make more money? Imagine, if you don’t have a rear seatbelt, your insurance premiums would definitely be increased. And ONLY locally made cars that didn’t come with any rear seat belts would be installed for free.
To me, all this comes to a waste, especially for, installing baby car seats or booster seats. Why? Simply because these seats are not bolted to the car.
Each and every baby car seat comes with an additional belt and anchor point, for bolting purposes. When I was in the hospital waiting to be discharged, I had to produce a receipt to say that my baby carseat was properly fitted by an approved restraint fitter. When I was in KL, I tried very hard to get a mechanic to drill a hole and help me bolt it down. Unfortunately, nobody had done it before and as such, the car seat was merely belted.
Here are some pictures of what I meant by car seats being bolted down :
Anchor point for Baby Car Seat
Baby Car Seat
How the Baby Car Seat is anchored.
Anchor point for Toddler Car Seat
Toddler Car Seat
So, no matter how cheap or how expensive the baby car seat, as long as it’s not bolted down by an experienced restraint fitter…. it’s no use. The baby car seat would not be able to withstand any impact during a crash. So, it’s just a placebo effect for the parent…to think that the baby is safe in a baby carseat, but in actual fact, they are not.
I urge all parents (for those with babies and toddlers) in Malaysia to highlight this in the press or somewhere….to create an awareness about this. It’s only because there is nobody certified or qualified in the market that will be able to do this.
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Well said, Mott! Agree with you totally that it is not the brand of the baby car seat but how it is used that makes a difference!
And i am very impressed with how the car seats are installed in Aussie. Msia certainly has a long way to go.
An insightful reveal. Didn’t know that is is possible to bolt the thing down.
The easiest and most sturdy way to bolt down the carseats is the LATCH system. Everyone can read up on it in the Wiki. Obviously Bolehland can’t do things right the first time.
Here, how many times they said they wanna implement seat belt for the back pasenggers but all tok kok only. Implement then one two month after the uniform ppl eat enough money from summons, then forget about it la.
True la.. the baby car seat, no matter how exp also it’s not 100% safe here. Cos we only used the seat belt to pusing here and there and think that it’s locked. Try and push and see, it moves wan. So that considered safe ah?
I totally agree with you, be it expensive or cheapo car seat, if it is not properly in placed and bolted down, when accident happen the kid will still get hurt.
Well, we gotta wait for another 5 to 10 yrs before Msia govt will enforce the rule PROPERLY. And before that,the uniform people need to attend anti-corruption class so that they will not “eat money” like what mentioned by Sasha.
Wow…i did not know that. Thanks for the info. Hmm now, i must tell my hubby that.
I think the Govt delays in making it mandatory is because they also promote Malaysian to have more babies to have X amount of population by 2020 whatever year. So if one family have more than 2 or 3 children, it is already impossible to have only ONE normal car but need VAN/MPV or maybe LORRY?? hahaha, how many families can afford this type of cars? not to say - seat belts or baby seats….our Govt is just SO contradicting. I agree with you, no anchoring down, the baby seat is NOT SAFE!
Graco has the LATCH system that Vien mentioned, and that’s what we use right now…although the bolting down systems does look more secure…
Hmm….but it’s just like adults sitting with the seatbelt? That’s why there is a weight limit for a particular range of carseats. I don’t think that having a un-bolted car seat is as good as not having one at all…….