Carnage on the roads over the 2010 Easter break has ACC urging drivers to make sure children are correctly buckled up when travelling in vehicles. Police say they stopped numerous vehicles over the weekend where children were not restrained properly or not restrained at all. “If you don’t buckle your child in properly they can become a torpedo if your car crashes, flying through the window and being seriously injured” says ACC Injury Prevention Programme Manager Anna Long. “The law says that children need to travel in car seats, or child restraints, up until the age of five years old,” says Ms Long, “but the truth of the matter is some children, particularly those that are smaller in stature, should be in restraints until they’re much older.” Berenice Langson, the National Safe-2-Go Coordinator, says that each year, on average 16 New Zealand children are killed in motor vehicle crashes and at least 75 children aged 14 years or younger are injured severely enough to be hospitalised. A recent study suggests as many as 65% of children are not correctly restrained, and therefore are at risk of serious injury in the event of a crash.