Child to use adult seat belt in taxis

In response to press enquiries, a Transport Department spokesman said today (January 18) that parents should use the adult seat belts provided in the taxi to restraint their children.

The spokesman said overseas studies indicated that the child is less at risk of injury if he/she is wearing an adult belt as opposed to no belt at all."

"It is the optimum scenario that children are restrained by an appropriate child restraint when they are traveling by a car." the spokesman explained.

"The provision of appropriate child restraint device for children passengers of private cars is comparatively easy to achieve since the drivers would know his regular passengers well and could make necessary arrangement as required.

"The child restraint requirement is thus made mandatory for private car drivers in Hong Kong. However, the situation is different in taxis since it would be impracticable to mandatory require parents to bring appropriate child restraint device with them when they get on taxi.

"It would also be impracticable to require taxi drivers to provide the device. In line with international practice, we do not impose a mandatory requirement for the taxi owners to provide a child restraint device."

End/Thursday, January 18, 2001