The thought of a car crash involving a new born baby is
one that would make any parent sick with fear. Infant car seats sold in the UK and Ireland must be manufactured to strict United Nations ECE regulations but fitting a child seat into the car can be undertaken by absolutely anybody. It is estimated that up to 80% of child seats are fitted incorrectly, a figure which will become even more worrying once you watch the videos below
The videos show a series of mock crashes staged by the Transport Research Laboratory for The Observer. Using a dummy, they illustrate – all
too graphically – the shocking results of strapping a child into a badly fitted
car seat.
In the first test, the seat was fitted correctly; in two subsequent tests it was incorrectly fitted. The fitting mistakes were similar to those seen by road safety officers in checks around the country, including a mis-routed seatbelt, loose harness and seatbelt, and the removal of the child's head support.
The tests simulate a front impact crash
at merely 48kph (c30mph)
In the second test, the seatbelt was mis-routed and the head support removed (a mistake one tester had seen a relative make). The harness inside the seat was loosened, as though to make room for a child wearing a coat or snow suit. The seat felt fairly stable when shaken.
The handle was also put back. At the point of impact, the seatbelt retained the seat, but the dummy was thrown forward, putting serious strain on its neck.
For the third test, the seatbelt and harness were slackened further, resulting in more movement after impact, and the dummy eventually being thrown out of the harness and against the backseat.
Marrianne Hynd, who works as an adviser on car seats to the European Commission and represents the UK on working groups for child seat safety, said this would have resulted in head injuries.
She said the slackness of the harness would have prevented the seat spreading the force of the crash over the child's body and reducing injury. "Too much slack in the harness means that the child will be caught later in the crash, because the harness doesn't have time to absorb the energy," she said. In some cases, it can even result in the child being ejected.
Hynd added that, in a real crash, the car would pitch forward and that movement could be enough to send the car seat into the footwell.
Anyone concerned about their car seat should contact their council's road safety department to see if they offer fitting checks, or visit our website for details of where to get more information.
The TRL is running a ratings system for seats which factors in how easy the seats are to install. So far, only three manufacturers have put seats forward to be rated.
Original Guardian article here.