Brake is calling on parents to “wise up” about child car seat safety following a survey published today (20 August) in which the charity said that “only one in four (26%) know the law on child and booster seats”.
Brake also says that in the survey just 16% of respondents said they would use a child seat until their child was 150cm tall, the height “recommended by safety experts”.
The survey marks the start of Brake’s annual ‘Beep Beep! Day’ campaign in November 2013. Brake says that over the next three months, 200 nurseries, pre-schools and children’s centres will run Beep Beep! Days to help teach children and parents about road safety, and to raise awareness about the need for drivers to slow down to protect families.
In the survey of 1,000 parents of children under the age of 10 years, 5% said they never use a child or booster seat; 26% have used a child seat or booster seat that did not fit properly; 47% don’t always ensure their child uses an appropriate child seat or booster seat when travelling in a taxi or someone else’s car; and 27% have used a second hand child seat or booster seat.
Julie Townsend, deputy chief executive of Brake, said: “Every year, more than 700 young children are killed or seriously injured on our roads. They are not accidents we must learn to live with; every child death and serious injury on roads is preventable.
“It’s vital that parents, carers and the wider driving public understand how best to protect children on roads, and it is worrying to find common misunderstanding about child car seats. We recommend parents always use a correctly fitted suitable child or booster seat until a child is 150cm tall.
“We’re also urging more early years educators to run Beep Beep! Days to start engaging young children in road safety and crucially to get life-saving messages across to parents and the wider community.”
Contact Siobhan MacMahon at Brake on 01484 550063 for more information.
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