?I have been living in Mauritius for nearly 15 years. I have always felt road safety is a major concern for children, especially in Mauritius. There are two reasons for this. Firstly because of my job as a doctor previously working in many casualty departments in England and in South Africa and seeing first-hand the physical and emotional devastation caused to children and their families by road accidents.

The second reason is because I am also the mother of two beautiful, precious children. I believe that the safety belt issue is a major one when we are talking about road safety. I see many parents holding their children thinking their arms are replacing a seatbelt, while the arms of a person can never replace a seatbelt combined with a proper safety seat. Or adults safely ?buckled-up? while their children jump up and down on the back seat, often waving sweetly at the following car oblivious of how easily they could be hurt if the driver had to swerve or brake suddenly.

The other thing I feel really concerned about is when I see children walking with their parents on the road. What shocks me is that the children are most frequently on the outside/roadside, whereas the parents walk on the inside.

We do have laws and enough publicity explaining the precautions adults should take on the road, but I strongly feel we do not have anything specific for children. Indeed, I think there should be more publicity on television and so on to raise parents? and children?s awareness about how they should cross the road or how they should behave whenever they are travelling by car.