Your Car Seat Safety Guide

 

If there is one single item that is essential for all babies, it is a car seat. Many hospitals will not let you leave the premises until you have got a car seat to safely transport your baby home. Even if you do not own a car, you will still need a car seat when you are travelling in other people's cars.

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We provide a free car seat fitting service because around 80% of car seats are incorrectly fitted. More importantly - we will show you how to fit your car seat. Our experienced staff are specially trained to provide advice and fitting guidance on the car seats that we sell, with many of the staff having young children of their own.

If you are unsure as to whether a car seat will fit into your car you should always "try before you buy". 

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Having bought it - fit it securely and use it! Studies by the Road Safety Team have shown that a staggering four out of five child car seats are not properly fitted and 90 per cent of child road deaths could be prevented if children were strapped in to well-fitted seats.

 

The safest way for children to travel in cars is in a child car seat that is suitable for their weight and size. In a crash at just 30mph, an unrestrained child would be thrown forward with a force between 30 and 60 times their own body weight, seriously injuring, or even killing, themselves and other passengers. There is also a high risk that they would be ejected from the car through one of the windows.

 

It is never safe to hold a child on your lap whilst travelling in the car. Even in a minor accident, the child could be crushed between your body and the car interior. Moreover, even if you were secured with a seat belt, the child would be torn from your arms, no matter how hard you tried to hold on. It is also dangerous to put a seat belt around yourself and a child, or around two children. Most of this is just common sense but sadly it really does happen.

 

Top Tip 1

Make sure the car seat you intend to buy fits securely in your car.

 

Top Tip 2

Make sure your child is the right weight and height for your car seat particularly when moving from group 0+ to group 1. Your group 0+ car seat is the safest place for your child to be until his or her head sticks out of the top of the seat or his weight exceeds 13kg. Crash test dummies do not have ages. Age has nothing to do with whether your child is suitable to move to the next seat up.

 

Top Tip 3

Ensure that you are comfortable fitting your car seat. You never know when you may need to do it and it is your responsibility. There are always pictures of the correctly fitted car seat on the side of the seat.