Introduction:
Road traffic injuries are a significant public health problem in Romania, and children are a vulnerable population for death and disabilities caused by road traffic injuries. Research conducted in Cluj-Napoca showed that only half of children travelling by car were properly restrained and, children are less likely to travel properly restrained as they grow older (Dulf et al, 2020). Using this evidence, a multi-sectorial initiative started in 2018, with the primary scope of improving child car passenger safety and promoting appropriate use of child restraints.

Objectives:
The multi-sectorial initiative focused on three main pillars: secure police enforcement, build commitment from the city-hall to support car seat programs for vulnerable groups and increase awareness and knowledge among parents of children older than

Methods:
The project was funded by the Botnar Child Road Safety Challenge in yearly funding cycles since 2018 and will continue to be supported by the end of 2023. The project is implemented by a multi-disciplinary team of experts in the field of child safety, run by the White Cross Foundation in Romania, and endorsed by a team of advisors from the Global Road Safety Partnership. The yearly proposal and monitoring and evaluation plans are followed-up to accomplish the planned objectives.

Results:
A total of 30 police officers were trained to conduct enforcement on child restraint systems, more than 10 police officers were trained to increase road safety leadership, a multi-sectorial action group was established with the support of City-hall and Road Traffic Police and a raising awareness campaign promoting appropriate use of car seats through all types of media was launched. FCA/Copil iubit la bord have amassed 16K followers on Facebook building a strong community on the topic and the first app in Europe, Child Car Safety App, to increase child car safety by supporting parents to appropriately restrain children when traveling by car were part of the raising awareness campaign.

Conclusions:
The multi-sectorial initiative to increase child passenger safety in Cluj-Napoca, Romania (Copil Iubit la Bord/Loved Child on Board) is an example of committed partnerships for engagement at local administration levels- both city hall and police leadership – which support the non-governmental institutions and academia to implement evidence-based programs and policies in the field on injury prevention and safety promotion.

Keywords: road traffic safety, multi-sectorial engagement, priority-setting, awareness.

Other info: Erika Baragan, Department of Public Health, Faculty of Political, Administrative, Communication Sciences, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania Atsani Ariobowo, Global Road Safety Partnership, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Geneva, Switzerland Ramona Brad, White Cross Foundation, Bucharest, Romania Ana Măiță, White Cross Foundation, Bucharest, Romania

Introduction:
The use of car seats in Romania continues to be low. 2020 Cluj County Traffic Police Reports revealed that 40% of child passengers involved in car crashes were not using any type of restraints. The proportion of children travelling restrained declines with age, children older than 5 being at higher risk. Existing research evidence showed that there is a need to increase correct child restraints (Dulf et al, 2020), while new technologies, like mobile apps, are starting to become an important tool in increasing these rates as demonstrated by an RCT conducted in two children’s emergency hospitals (Gielen et al, 2018).

Objectives:
In July 2022, the Child Car Safety (CCS) App was launched to support parents in improving their car safety behaviours for child passengers. The app is available in Romanian and in English. This research aims to evaluate the process and the impact of the CCS app by testing its usability and by measuring self-reported changes in child restraints practices by parents, after using the CCS app. The work on developing and improving the app is on-going and is considered for incorporating other well-being aspects for children. Partial results are presented.

Methods:
The app will be evaluated by using the System Usability Scale and a survey to measure changes in parents’ car safety behaviors after using the app. The evaluation is planned for April - May 2023. The app already has two integrated feedback components, measuring the likelihood of recommending the app on a scale to 1 to 5 and a feedback section where users can share their opinions.

Results:
Since the launch of the app on July 28, 2022, a total of 2584 successful accounts were created. A number of 1510 parents assigned a car seat to their child’s profile, using seat label scan feature. Currently, half of the accounts remained over time. On March 3rd, 2023, a notification was sent to 1284 users, whilst the app has around 480 active users, over one month period. Partial results, measuring the likelihood of recommending the app is 4,7 out of 5, based on 211 respondents.

Conclusions: The Child Car Safety App is built on research-evidence, as an accessible tool to increase parents’ knowledge and awareness on appropriate child safety restraints use, providing them with guided information, notifications, and verification methods to check seat compliance.

Keywords: child passenger safety, mobile application

Other info:  Ramona Brad, White Cross Foundation, Bucharest, Romania, Atsani Ariobowo, Global Road Safety Partnership, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Geneva, Switzerland, Anca Daniela Aron, Linnify, Cluj-Napoca, Romania