Child Safety in Cars

Sitting comfortably, kids? It may be a matter of life or death

Laws on child safety in cars are being tightened. Emma Smith explains the best ways to put youngsters in their place and keep them there

Once upon a time children would enjoy cramming sardine-like into the back seat of the family car. Curling up in the footwell or lying flat across crunched-up friends added to the fun and games. The loser would usually end up in the middle.

But the fun disguised a steadily rising death toll among children as roads became more crowded and traffic speeds increased. On average, children are killed or seriously injured in car crashes at the rate of about two a day.

An unrestrained child in a 30mph crash is propelled with a force 30-60 times their body weight, almost certainly injuring themselves and others in the vehicle. What is surprising, however, is that it is not illegal to have an unrestrained child in the car.

As the law stands, the driver is required to put a child in a child restraint (ie, a child seat or adult seatbelt used with a booster) only where "an appropriate one is available". Otherwise children under three can legally sit unrestrained in the back seat (although not in the front). And children aged three and over can sit in the front or rear seats using an adult seatbelt where no suitable child restraint is available.

Until the child passes its 14th birthday, it is up to the driver to make sure they buckle up. After that, it’s up to the teenager.

If these laws seem insufficient, even careless, it’s worth remembering that when they came into force in 1989 seatbelts had been compulsory for drivers and front-seat passengers for only six years, though parents always have a responsibility for their children and can be prosecuted if they are negligent or reckless.

In June Corinne Burgwin, 24, of East Grinstead, West Sussex, was found guilty of causing death by dangerous driving after her six-month-old daughter Elisha suffered fatal chest injuries due to a badly secured baby seat. Although designed to be rear-facing, the seat had been placed facing forwards on the back seat with the harness not properly tightened.

In future all parents will have to take more care. From May next year a European directive is expected to come into force making it illegal to take children in cars without an appropriate child restraint until they reach 12 years old or are taller than 4ft 5in.

From May 2008 all seats would then have to adhere to stiff United Nations design and performance standards. And from May 2009 it will be illegal to carry more passengers than there are child restraints or seatbelts — which some campaigners fear will mean more cars outside the school gates and a logistical nightmare for time-strapped parents trying to get children to and from dance classes and sports matches.

The Department for Transport is considering an exemption for "short, occasional trips", although it is unclear what this would include. The rules will not apply to taxis.

Child safety is one area where parents are ahead of the letter of the law in many respects, and manufacturers have responded to government safety advice by producing a wide range of safety equipment. Such a wide range, in fact, that it is often bewildering.

Child car seats are divided into five groups, each relating to different weights. The first is group 0, suitable for babies up to 22lb or about nine months, followed by group 0+, suitable from birth to about 29lb or roughly 15 months. Babies up to this weight are best travelling in rear- facing seats or cradles. If the seat or cradle is in the front the passenger airbag must, say safety experts, be disabled. From next May this is expected to be law.

Some models of car will allow you to do this with a special key but for others it will involve a trip to the dealer. Mercedes produces child seats that include a microchip that can be read by a transponder in the front seat and will automatically switch off the front airbag. Prices start from £150. The seats should work in all Mercedes cars produced in the past five years.

Children over about nine months or weighing 20-40lb can switch to a group 1 front-facing seat, still with its own integral harness. It is best to fit these in the back, but if you have to use the front seat, push it as far back as possible from the airbag.

Booster seats (classified as group 2), often used in conjunction with an adult seatbelt, are suitable for children weighing about 33-55lb and aged roughly 4-6 years. Booster cushions are suitable only for group 3, weighing between 48-79lb and about 6-11 years old

The adult seatbelt should be adjusted to fit across the child’s pelvic region rather than the stomach, and over the shoulder rather than cutting across the neck.

You should never sit with a child on your knee and the seatbelt wrapped around you both because your weight could kill your child in a crash. Safety experts advise against using an ordinary household cushion as opposed to a proper booster because cushions can slip. They also recommend a non-slip mat to go underneath the child restraint or booster in cars with leather seats.

Like buggies, which have developed from the rickety foldable appliances of old into rugged, off-roading three-wheelers, modern child seats come with a range of fashionable features.

New seat fabrics can be breathable to prevent your child’s back getting too hot, and include hoods to protect their eyes from the glare of the sun and extra padding to reduce rubbing on the backs of knees and ankles. They come in a range of attractive colours from Blue Storm to Urban Slate. But it’s no use simply choosing a seat to match your car upholstery.

"This isn’t about image, it’s about saving lives," said Andrew Howard, safety expert for the AA Motoring Trust.

It is the weight of your child that is important, not its age or height. You must make sure the seat is compatible with your make and model of car, and you might want to check it’s compatible with grandparents’ or childminders’ cars as well.

There is no single seat that fits all cars. It is best to buy one that adheres to the safety standard UN-ECE R44/03 (this stands for the UN Economic Commission for Europe), the regulations that are set to be compulsory from May 2008.

When you have found the right seat, the next hurdle is fitting it — recent surveys suggest that as many as 80% of car seats are badly fitted. Most child seats are held by the adult safety harness and you should always check this is tight and secure before setting off on a journey.

A system called Isofix (which stands for International Standards Organisation fix), is being used by a growing number of car manufacturers. It is designed to be a universal fitting mechanism and enables the child seat to be clipped into place.

Two clips or hooks on the child seat fit or click into corresponding anchor points on the car seat (if your car has them you’ll find them just inside the groove where the seat back meets the base). Most new cars now have Isofix connections as standard or as an option and they will be compulsory on all new models from 2006.

However, child seat manufacturers have been somewhat slower on the uptake and Britax, based in Andover, Hampshire (www.britax.co.uk, 01264 386 027), claims to be the only manufacturer supplying Isofix-compatible child seats in the UK. Safety experts advise parents to buy face to face rather than online so they can get as much advice as possible.

"One of the most common mistakes people make is not to push the seat down firmly enough, so it is still able to slip around," said Roger Vincent of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA). "You need to put one knee inside the child seat and really push down hard to make sure it stays in place."

Only take a hand-me-down seat from a trusted friend or relative provided you are sure it has not been in a crash, is compatible with your car and comes with instructions. "We would strongly advise parents against buying second-hand seats," said Vincent.

Don’t forget to cover your child seat on hot days when it is not in use to prevent your child being burnt on hot metal. Finally, ensure they know not to undo the buckle. "If the child repeatedly undoes the buckle, try distracting them with a song or a game of I-Spy," RoSPA suggests.

And getting it right is worth the effort. The average British child travels 5,000 miles every year by car. A child in a properly fitted restraint is 90% more likely to survive a crash than one who is not.

© Sunday Times 2005

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