Safety comes first
One morning taking her child to school, Ms. Nguyen Thu Ha in Hanoi still let her 5-year-old son sit in the back seat, fastening his seat belt like an adult. One day in a hurry, she even let her child sit in her grandmother's lap because she thought "going a short distance is probably okay". Only when the car in front braked suddenly, and her child was pushed forward, did she realize that the seat belt in the car was not suitable for the child's body.
Ms. Ha's case is not unremarkable. Many parents still think that adults hugging children or putting children in the back seat is safe enough. In fact, when the car brakes suddenly, collides or decelerates suddenly, the child may be thrown off position, hit the front seat, car door or glass; while an adult's bracelet can hardly keep the child safe.
The issue of child safety seats in cars is not newly mentioned as a mandatory measure. Decree 168/2024 has stipulated that in cases of carrying children under 10 years old and under 1.35m tall in cars sitting in the same row of driver seats or not using safety equipment, drivers may be fined from 800,000 VND to 1,000,000 VND.
A scientific announcement, at a speed of only 50km/h - a very common situation in urban areas - the impact force can be equivalent to a fall from the 5th floor. At that time, adults are completely unable to hold a child weighing only 10-20kg. What happens in a few thousandths of a second does not allow any natural reflex to save the child from serious injury. The airbag in the front seat deploying at a speed of 150-300km/h can directly cause damage and death to young children.
According to reputable studies published by WHO, safe seats help reduce the risk of death for infants by 70%, reduce the risk of death for young children by 54% and especially significantly reduce the level of injury when collisions occur.
Representatives of the Traffic Police Department once emphasized that the regulation that children under 10 years old and under 1.35m tall must use appropriate safety equipment is to protect the health and lives of their own children.
The necessity of safety equipment is even clearer when looking at the body structure of young children. For children under 1.35m, the vehicle seat belt is often not in the correct position of shoulders, chest and hips as for adults. The seat belt can hang across the neck, face or abdomen, causing children not to be properly protected, and even the risk of more serious injury when a collision occurs. Suitable safety equipment helps fix the child's body in the correct position, distribute impact force, and limit the risk of head, neck, spine, and internal organ damage.
Need to soon handle obstacles
However, a correct and necessary regulation that wants to go into life cannot just stop at the requirement "must have". The important issue is that people must know what to buy, where to buy, which products meet standards, how to install and which agency is responsible for quality control. This is the current obstacle.
According to the Vietnam Register, the National Technical Regulation QCVN 123:2024/BGTVT on safety equipment for children used in cars has been in effect since January 1, 2026. This is the basis for assessing conformity, certification and declaration of conformity for child safety seats. However, to date, no certification organization is qualified to carry out certification activities according to this regulation.
This makes it difficult for businesses producing, importing, and trading safety equipment to announce conformity. Consumers are also confused because there are too many products on the market with different prices, designs, and origins. Many children's chairs are advertised as "European standards", "absolutely safe", "brake-resistant" but lack quality proof dossiers.
Talking to Lao Dong Newspaper, Mr. Mai Tien Thanh (resident in Kien Hung ward, Hanoi) said that his family has a 6-year-old girl, about 1.15m tall and often travels by 4-seater car.
Mr. Thanh wondered, if not controlled well, new regulations may cause the demand for safety equipment for children to increase sharply, leading to the risk of poor quality goods of unknown origin flooding the market. "The quality of equipment used to protect young children must be guaranteed," he said.
Therefore, the removal of certification and conformity obstacles needs to be implemented urgently. First of all, the Ministry of Construction needs to soon issue specific guidelines for localities, testing organizations, and certification organizations to have a basis for registering operations according to QCVN 123:2024/BGTVT. Along with that, it is necessary to clearly announce the process, conditions, dossiers, and handling deadlines so that businesses can proactively prepare.
In case there is no qualified certification organization before the regulation takes effect, the option of temporarily appointing the Motor Vehicle Testing Center to conduct tests and assigning the Vietnam Register to temporarily certify for a certain period is a solution to be considered. This is a way to ensure that regulations are not "suspended" due to lack of implementation focal points, and at the same time create a transition period for the market to adapt.
