For the first time in Israel, taxi drivers will install in their taxis safety seats for newborns, who were released from the hospital. This is a joint initiative of the Department of Obstetrics, the Department of Neonatology and the Department of Emergency Medicine at Hadassah, "Beterem" Organization (The National Center for Children's Safety & Health), and Hadassah Taxis station to install safety seats within the taxis in order to safely transport newborns from the Maternity Ward and Department of Neonatology back home.
The project is meant for families who do not have a safety seat, in order to allow them to transport their newborn safely. Hadassah Hotel will also take part in this initiative, and will recommend parents who don't have a safety seat to borrow one.
Taxi drivers of the Hadassah taxi station, as well as their supervisors and directors, were all trained to properly install seatbelts and safety seats in their cars, and will now be able to make sure that babies are properly secured while driving in their taxis.
The safety seats were donated by "Shilav" store at the Hadassah Ein-Kerem shopping center.
Special signs in the Hadassah Taxi station and its taxis will say that it is a "safe station". Hadassah Taxis are the first in Israel to be proactively involved in promoting children's safe transportation.
The need for this cooperation was a result of a survey performed by "Betrem" Organization with the collaboration of the Department of Obstetrics at Hadassah. 5 out of 56 mothers declared that they left the hospital without a safety seat.
Another survey conducted by the National Roads Safety Authority during 2009 showed that 56% of the infants, aged from birth to 12 months, were being transported with no seatbelt or were improperly belted; a sharp increases from 2008, where only 31% of the infants wore no seatbelt or were improperly belted.
According to Israeli law, wearing seatbelts or seating in safety seats are mandatory for all ages.
Transportation by vehicle with no seatbelt on is the main risk factor for mortality of children involved in car accidents. Researches conducted by the American RSA showed that the chance for a child to be severely injured in a car accident is 3.5 higher when he is not wearing a seatbelt.
Babies' neck and the back of their neck are not fully developed, and will not hold on the intensity of the blow in case of a car accident, which might cause an irreversible damage to their spinal cord.
Safety seats prevent the baby from being thrown out of the vehicle in case of a car accident or an emergency break. It maintains contact with the stronger areas of the body and disperses the forces which are being applied on it. The safety seat also protects the head, neck and spinal cord of the baby.
Proper use of safety seat decreases babies' mortality and severe injuries rate by 71%.
Despite the high level of awareness to the benefits of safety seats, many parents do not have their children put seatbelts on, and even tend to hold them in their hands in the car.
Having a newborn in a safety seat upon leaving the hospital will ensure the baby and family a first safe ride home.