Pillion riding for Adults Only

Pillion riding is dangerous even for adults but is an absolute no-no for children. It is also illegal to transport children riding pillion on two-wheelers. People who regularly travel by two-wheelers cite the convenience. Given the traffic situation in most towns and cities in India, there is more than a grain of truth in that. Public transport is not as good as it should be. Moreover, public transportation at odd hours or during emergencies may just not be available. Two-wheelers are also much cheaper to maintain than cars.

Yet, children should never travel on two-wheelers, as it is downright dangerous. Most people, do not pay any heed to safety and don’t realize how dangerous it is to ferry children around on two-wheelers. We have this gentleman, nicely protected by his helmet (I suspect more out of fear of the law than by concerns about safety!), ferrying not one, but two kids in the rear.

There is no protection and no restraint. Any accident (whosoever is at fault, whether it be the rider himself, other drivers, the road or pedestrians), will result in the children being flung with great force out of the vehicle and crashing into anything that is nearby. Please do yourself and your children (whom you profess to love so much!) a favor and only travel with them, properly restrained in car seats in the back of four-wheelers! Please!

I have seen children actually dozing off at the back, when pillion riding. I quickly move away from such riders as I would certainly not want to be the instrument of their doom!

April 12, 2015April 12, 2015

Keeping Children Safe In Parked Cars

Kids, 2 & 4, get locked in car, die of suffocation

The headlines practically screamed at me! What a waste of precious life! All because we cannot take basic precautions? It immediately brought back memories of another headline just a few month back

Four Children Suffocate to Death in Locked Tamil Nadu Car

How many times have we left our kids in the car while we finished off an errand in “just a

Car parked in the sun — Car Parked in the sun for an hour can get by as much as 22° C over the surrounding temperature

minute”. Most unknowingly, that minute can turn into a few minutes and that for a child trapped in a hot, parked car can be fatal. It is the sun and the resultant heat stroke, that kills, not the temperature outside. Even on a cool day, just by virtue of being out in the sun, in closed confines, can heat up the inside by around 22° C in an hour! Most of this (80%) increase occurs in the first half an hour.

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January 1, 2015January 1, 2015

On Dangers Of Walking On The Road With Your Child

Never walk with the child nearest vehicular traffic. He is likely to dart across, leaving your hand suddenly with disastrous consequences

April 27, 2013August 26, 2017

Is the surgery normal, Doctor?

This is probably one of the most common questions that I encounter. By the time this question comes up, I have already discussed about the near negligible risks (but not zero) of surgery and anesthesia in children at least twice. The actual risk of death for healthy children undergoing anesthesia is of the order of 1:100000 children undergoing anesthesia. To define this in easily understood terms, the risk is less than half the risk of crossing a busy street. We merrily (or should I say with gay abandon!) cross streets 15-20 times a day at the very least, paying nary a thought to the very real possibility of an accident.

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