All about Road Safety Rules for Children in the UAE

The United Arab Emirates boasts a brilliant infrastructure. The road network across the Emirates is meticulously designed and constructed to ensure a comfortable, convenient and safe drive. Strict traffic rules and regulations are in place for maximum road safety. And when it comes to traffic rules, the UAE government doesn’t give any free pass to the violators. Aside from general traffic guidelines, rules to ensure child safety on the road are also quite strict here.

In this guide, we have compiled all about road safety rules for kids to ensure their safety while driving.

Children Road Safety Rules in UAE

Mother and child in a car — Use child lock in your car to prevent your kids from opening the doors

Proper car safety measures such as using a child lock and a proper child car safety seat can help in preventing kids from getting injured during an uncertain situation. According to the Ministerial Resolution no. 178 of 2017 here is the list of tips for child car safety rules in the UAE.

According to the “holistic seat belt law”, every passenger in the car must wear seatbelts. This includes children up to four years. Those who violate the rules will be fined AED 400 and four black points.
Also, kids below 145 cm and younger than 10 years are not allowed to sit in the front passenger seat of a car.
The child car safety seat must be purchased from the authorised Emirates Authority for Standardisation and Metrology (ESMA) vendors and have cleared car crash tests. The vendors have the child safety car seats as per the European regulation with 44.03/44.04 and .03/.04 serial numbers.
If a baby weighs more than 9 kg, it must be seated on a rear-facing car seat.

Other Safety Measures to be Taken

A child wearing a seatbelt — Make sure your kids wear car seat belts while travelling

Other safety precautions you should watch out for your kids are:

Since the UAE climate is quite extreme, never leave your kid unattended in the car. As per the UAE’s children’s rights law, those who leave their kids alone in the car can face serious consequences. For instance, they can go to jail for up to 10 years and will get a fine of up to AED 1,000,000.
Be extra cautious while parking or reversing your car, especially when you are driving in a residential area. There is a chance that kids might be playing around.
Use a child lock to prevent your kids from opening a car.
Educate your kids about entering and exiting in the car properly and make them aware of the traffic signs.
To ensure road safety for kids, always follow the UAE speed limit.
Your kids might have to cross roads or have to walk while coming from school. Make sure you educate your kids about how to cross the road safely. Ask them to always look for pedestrian crossings. In the absence of the crossing, ask your kids to look left/right and wait for the signal to turn green.
Always keep an eye on your kids while driving to ensure they are not taking their hands and head out of the window.
Ask your kids not to stand or move inside a vehicle, especially on a school bus. You can engage kids to play car games such as I Spy, Car Colour Game etc.

The UAE government have also arranged a customised program for kid’s road safety

The UAE government along with Emirate Driving Institute initiated a children’s road safety program ‘Mama I am home’. The purpose of this multi-media customised program is to educate kids about road safety. It is one of the useful measures taken by the UAE government for the road safety of children.

With this, we conclude our guide on the road safety rules for children. Make sure you follow these tips to childproof a car to avoid any hazardous situation. If you are looking for family cars in the UAE, then check out these used cars for sale in the UAE at a market competitive price. You can also check out these used SUVs for sale:

If you find this information useful, stay tuned to the UAE’s leading auto blog for more safe driving tips.