When on a road trip, do you tuck your child in a seat designed specifically for them or make them sit on your lap? While most people are wont to choose the latter, it can be dangerous in the event of an accident. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, over 2,700 children below the age of 14 died in road accidents in 2020.

“In a number of crashes, where children are inside the vehicle, they’ve been severely injured or at times, killed. They either get thrown out of the vehicle because they are not restrained or end up interacting with the body of the vehicle, resulting in massive injuries that are often fatal,” says Piyush Tewari, founder of SaveLIFE Foundation, a non-for-profit organisation that works towards improving road safety. Tewari says that these observations during forensic crash investigations highlight that it is critical to have a child restraint system (CRS) in vehicles.