The fact that seven out of 10 child car seats are incorrectly fitted could be contributing to a “sharp rise” in child road deaths, according to Good Egg Safety.
71% of the seats tested by Good Egg Safety in 2014 in England and Wales were unsafe, while the corresponding figure in Scotland was 64%. Across the UK the figure was 67%.
The Good Egg figures come on the back of DfT stats which show that the number of children killed or seriously injured on Britain’s roads has risen for the first time in two decades.
Jan James, chief executive of Good Egg Safety, said: "The DfT’s figures show that we are not, as a nation, taking child car safety seriously enough.
"The saddest thing is most parents and grandparents genuinely want what is best for their children, they just don’t know how to choose the right seats nor how to fit them. We’ve put all the advice on our website, free of charge.”
Honor Byford, chair of Road Safety GB, said: "There are so many different makes, styles and versions of child car seats that it isn’t surprising that so often the seat that parents (or grandparents) have bought is either not the best one for that car or is proving difficult to fit securely every time you make a journey.
“We strongly recommend that parents check if their car has ISOFiX child seat securing points – most new cars have had these for some years now. Using an ISOFiX seat means that the seat is bolted into the frame of the car and is not entirely dependent on the tightness of the adult seatbelt around it.
“We are pleased to support Good Egg Safety with their clear and helpful guides for parents and appreciate the work they do in supporting local road safety officers to help parents provide the best protection they can for their children."
Click here to request a copy of the latest Good Egg Safety report.
I would agree with these figures, from the car seats I check. The comment from most parents is that they didn’t realise that the seat was not suitable/incorrectly fitted etc, as they have never had any information on the subject. I distribute Good Egg Guides to our local maternity hospital and Children’s Centres, but there have been cutbacks in groups run at these places, so it is very difficult to get information to the relevant people.
Elaine Keeler, Havering
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I totally agree Paul and it would be really helpful if we were able to interrogate the data further.
The difficulty we will always face is the fact that emergency services can’t waste time checking if the seat IS fitted safely; their priority is to remove the child from the car as quickly as possible so precise data will always be a challenge.
The fact that the death and serious injury rate among child pedestrians has decreased by 1% over the same period, suggests it is children in cars who are bearing the brunt of the rise.
It isn’t too hard, therefore, to correlate an increase in in-car child passenger casualties with the 43% growth in incorrect fitment we have witnessed in the last five years.
It’s a rise we need to address because seven out of ten children sitting unsafely in cars I’m sure you will agree, is seven too many.
Jan James CEO Good Egg Safety
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“Could be” – requires deeper investigation of actual crashes – from a quick look at a STATS 19 form I can only see ‘seat belt in use.’
Paul Biggs, Staffodshire
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