Motorists with taller kids may probably need bigger cars in order to comply with the Child Safety in Motor Vehicles Act, an official of the Land Transportation Office (LTO) said.
During an interview over ABS-CBN’s DZMM TeleRadyo on Monday morning, LTO-NCR director Clarence Guinto was asked about concerns regarding booster seats for taller children.
“Ngayon po, ang tanong direktor, kung ang 12 years old po ninyo ay sobrang tangkad at siya po ay lalagyan ng booster… so aangat po ‘yun direktor… tatama ang ulo sa kotse. Hindi po ba mas delikado ‘yun?” host Amy Perez asked.
“Tama po ‘yun… siguro Ma’am Amy, laki-lakihan mo ‘yung sasakyan mo… hayaan mo… we will take note of that,” Guinto replied during the interview.
As reported by The STAR, children below 12 years old will be prohibited from taking the front seats starting Feb. 2 following the implementation of the Child Safety in Motor Vehicles Act.
However, the report said the LTO and its deputized law enforcement agencies “will not immediately issue traffic citation tickets to violators, as authorities would embark first on a massive information drive for two to six months to ensure smooth enforcement of the measure.”
“We will be on the warning mode and information dissemination,” deputy director of the LTO Law Enforcement Service Robert Valera said at a virtual press briefing hosted by Buckle Up Kids PH on Friday.
Under the law, a motorist is required to properly secure a child in a restraint system unless the child is at least 4.92 feet tall and can be properly secured by a regular belt.
Violators will be fined P1,000 for the first offense and P2,000 for the second offense. Third-time violators, meanwhile, will be slapped with a P5,000 fine and one-year suspension of their driver’s license.
UPDATE:
Guinto later apologized and said that his remark was “made in jest.”
“I am sorry for the confusion I have caused with my remark, which was made in jest. I realized now that it was inappropriate,” he said in a statement. “To clarify, if the child is 4’11, the child is exempted from using a child car seat under the law and may be secured using the regular seat belt.”
