A new campaign has been launched in Scotland to warn parents about potentially fatal common errors made in fitting child car seats.
The campaign – developed by Road Safety Scotland, in partnership with the child seat specialist, Good Egg Safety – will see images of incorrectly-fitted child seats released via social media, backed up by nine short videos.
The images and videos are designed to ‘graphically demonstrate’ why the child seats, or the children seated within them, are unsafe.
The new campaign coincides with the launch of an annual programme of free car seat checking events across Scotland, which in summer 2017 will visit 50 locations. Good Egg Safety says that previous checks in Scotland have shown that, on average, 54% of child car seats are incorrectly-fitted or incompatible with the child or the vehicle.
Last week, Good Egg Safety issued a safety alert in relation to incorrect routing of seatbelts through child seats, which it says is being found in about 10% of child seat checks across the UK.
Michael McDonnell, director of Road Safety Scotland, said: “Many parents would be horrified to learn their child car seats are not fitted properly and, therefore, not providing the protection their children need.
“This campaign seeks to highlight that, not only by raising awareness of the issue and providing advice and guidance, but it also has a very practical element in that people can check the website, find the nearest car seat clinic and get the child-seat-car combination checked by an expert. It only takes a few minutes yet could save a child’s life.”
Superintendent Louise Blakelock, Police Scotland, said: “It is absolutely essential that child safety seats are properly fitted, as the consequences of them not being so can be fatal for a young child, even in a relatively slow speed collision.
“We continue to work with partners to highlight the dangers and encourage parents and carers to ensure their precious passengers are properly and safely secured.”
The full schedule of car seat checking events and links to the new videos can be found on the Good Egg Safety website and Facebook page.
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Categories: Children, In-car safety.
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