Child safety advocates today acknowledged that the new car seat law requiring kids to use an appropriate child restraint up to their 7th birthday is a positive step forward in keeping children safe on New Zealand roads.

However, Safekids Aotearoa, doctors and a family whose children survived a horror car crash thanks to booster seats, reminds parents that age 7 is not a magic number, and that primary school kids are safer in a booster seat until they are 148cm tall.

With injuries skyrocketing, a new program will start in time for summer that promotes helmet use and a safe scooter culture for students travelling to and from school.  

According to Safekids’ position paper Child Skateboard and Scooter Injury Prevention, the rise in popularity of scootering has been coupled with a sharp increase in scooter-related injury. ACC claims data show that injuries have doubled every year since 2008—from just 697 claims that year to a staggering 6,474 in 2012. Many of these injuries were severe enough to land children in hospital.