Travel Safety with Children in a Developing Country

Part of our job as parents is to keep our children safe, but we also need to let them explore, learn from mistakes, and have fun. We need to find the balance of caring for them and trusting God to do the rest. So we let our children swing, climb trees, and ride bikes (with a helmet). We let our children play in the yard even though we cannot be entirely certain that there is not a venomous snake out there. And we let our children ride in motor vehicles.

In a country where it is commonplace for a mother holding an infant to balance on the back of  a moped while the father weaves through traffic with a toddler standing between his knees, vehicle safety is an extremely foreign concept. Thailand ranks third for the world's highest traffic fatalities, the majority of which occur in Bangkok among children and moped drivers. Philip and I are often have to evaluate what kind of transportation would be the safest for us to use to get from one place to another. In general, we have decided that public transportation offers the most responsible option. The skytrain has not had any major accidents that I am aware of since its inception in 1999, and the subway has had only one recorded accident with injuries but no deaths in its ten years of running. With their ability to travel above or below the horrible traffic of the city, these modes of transportation are definitely first choice for when we are heading somewhere that is accessible from one of the lines.

However, mass transit systems are quite a bit more expensive than our default choice, the city buses. The non-air conditioned buses can be free up to eight baht (about 30 cents); the air conditioned ones charge based on distance traveled, but is usually not more than 14 baht within the main city. The bus drivers vary widely in the safeness of their driving. Some accelerate and brake suddenly, weave in and out of traffic, and keep the doors open the whole time. We purposely try to sit away from the windshield and lower windows to a level which our children cannot fly out. The worst parts of the bus ride are the getting on and off. Bus drivers time it so that they can put the vehicle in gear and jerkily drive off the moment the last passenger's foot is on the step. I have to lift three children up the steep steps then hop on myself while carrying Simeon and try to make sure all the girls are holding on to something before they get knocked to the floor. Often other passengers and the ticket seller will help, since no one likes to see little children bounce around a bus. When we near our stop, I have to push the button and be ready at the door to dismount or the driver will often not stop. If we've had to sit in the back, it can be extremely difficult to get four small children and any bags together and to the front of the bus without anyone stumbling as the driver slams on the brake and veers to avoid rear-ending another vehicle. However, we feel that the bus option is generally safer than riding in taxi where the driver often behaves similarly, and we are without the benefit of tons of metal between us and another vehicle if involved in a collision.

Taxis might be a a more viable option if the drivers were considerate and they had working seat belts. We've only taken about seven taxis since we've been here but only one has had working seat belts. Philip commended the driver greatly on this. Also, to be really safe, we'd have to use car seats for our children. Any one who has tried to lug a car seat with them on a trip knows how difficult this is; can you imagine trying to drag four car seats around a congested city? We have hired a driver with a van and used our car seats on a few trips where we knew we would have a place to store the car seats on the other end or could leave them in the van.

Recently, I heard of a new product called the Ride Safer Travel Vest. It is similar to a lightweight life jacket and has passed all United States Federal safety standards for a child restraint system. After weighing and measuring the girls, I discovered that it would be awhile before Hollis could use one, even though the lower age limit is three. Meriel fit a small and Eris the large. I ordered them for my parents to bring. While my parents were here, we did some traveling which would have previously required us to debate whether or not it was worth the hassle of bring four car seats/boosters. We were able to chose to bring two car seats for the younger one and safely buckle Eris and Meriel in with their vests. These vests could then be put in the checked luggage for a plane ride, easily stored in a small hotel room, and carried by the girls as necessary.

As I mentioned earlier, the idea of travel safety is unknown here. When we checked our two car seats for the plane, one lady asked another what they were. Drivers are at first bemused when they see us carrying strange looking child seats and then annoyed as their precious time is spent as we struggle to secure the seats in as tightly as possible with disused seat belts and absence of LATCH components. The vests could be put on the girls beforehand and were more easily positioned with the seat belts, reducing the waiting and grumbling of the drivers.

Although none of the drivers mentioned it, I feel quite certain that at least some of them thought that I was a terrible mother for strapping my child into the car seat and letting him scream. As Simeon has only ridden in a car seat a handful of times, he is not used to it and could not understand what was happening. This is bad enough when my husband or I is driving but so much worse when the driver does not understand the reason for the seat in the first place and has to endure up to an hour of incessant screaming. I could not explain to him that if I did not truly believe that the device could safe my child's life, I would have him out of it and in my arms in a moment.

We feel we have found a reasonable balance that allows us to get around as we need. How we have chosen to do things is not the "right" way. Each parent needs to follow his/her own convictions as to how to keep their children safe. We use the information and resources we have available to us and leave the rest up to God.