main content Car seat retailers on course to improve child safety

A shocking child car seat survey showed that four out of five seats are not fitted correctly. This road safety survey means that in the event of a crash, most car seats will not work as intended and could lead to a tragic death or serious injury. Retailers across the borough are now being trained to give specialist advice to their customers in an innovative Road Safety Unit training programme.

“Choosing your child’s car seat is a bit like buying a pair of shoes. It’s not as straightforward as just choosing the colour! The need to fit too! To protect your child from an injury or even death, you need to ensure that they are adequately protected. The only way to do this is to select the right child car seat for your specific car and for the child who will be using it. The best advice is to try before you buy. We hope that the training scheme will enable consumers to buy with confidence” said Val Fuller, Child Car Seat Education Officer at the London Borough of Bromley.

Retailers in the Bromley wide scheme can achieve 3 levels of accreditation and employees who have achieved this can be identified by a badge. A Bronze badge will show customers that the wearer is qualified to give basic car seat advice about weight groups, moving baby from one stage to the next stage, airbags, harness adjustment, ISOFIX and the law. The only shops who have Bronze accredited advisors are: Mothercare - Orpington and Bromley; Halfords – Orpington, Bromley and Shirley; Babycare, Petts Wood; Babybaby, West Wickham; Little People, Penge; and Munchkins Orpington.

Silver accreditation will only be given when the Council’s experts are satisfied that staff are able to deal with the practical fitting of car seats.

The third level, Gold accreditation is only obtained when staff are qualified to train other colleagues.

Parents and carers are advised to follow Bromley’s car seat experts fitting tips which include:

• Keep a baby ‘rear ward’ facing as long as possible. Whilst the baby is within the weight limit for the seat and their head is within the height of the seat, this provides protection from serious or fatal neck injuries.
• Always choose a seat suitable for the child’s weight not age.
• Always try the seat in your car before you buy it as not all seats fit all cars.
• Use a booster seat with a back rather than a booster cushion as the back has head protection which will mean your child is better protected in a crash.
• Read the fitting instructions carefully and follow them exactly to ensure your child will be properly protected in a crash. Get help if you are not sure the seat is fitted correctly.

When the Bromley scheme proves successful, the Transport for London funded project could eventually be applicable to the whole of London.
Further information and advice can be obtained by calling the Road Safety team on 020 8313 4546 or visit www.bromley.gov.uk/roadsafety

ENDS


Notes to editors:

• The survey is similar to research from “Which?” and the AA Motoring Trust which suggests that two-thirds to four-fifths of car seats are wrongly fitted and one third are actually dangerous. Safety Tests were carried out by experts from the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) at the Britax test facility in Andover, Hampshire, using realistic child dummies sitting in Britax child restraints. The seats were deliberately installed incorrectly to illustrate the consequences of miss-fitting. The 20/25 survey was carried out by Bromley Road Safety Officers at Waitrose car park in Biggin Hill. This was during Child Safety Week June 2007
•  In August 2007 Bromley Road Safety Officers and Trading Standards Officers inspected the selling of seats by 5 retailers in Bromley and found that many did not know how to fit one correctly, or how to advise parents on safe fitting.
• Bromley Road Safety Unit has been offering car seat fitting advice to parents/carers for ten years as part of its road safety service.  
• ISOFIX stands for "International Standards Organisation FIX". It is a system for installing child seats into cars. Many new cars have ISOFIX points built in them when they are manufactured. Child seat manufacturers also build ISOFIX fittings to their seats. This enables child seats to be plugged into the ISOFIX points in the car. It is not yet the case that an ISOFIX seat will fit in every car with ISOFIX points.

For media enquiries, please contact Andrew Rogers, Communications Advisor, on 020 8461 7670, or email andrew.rogers@bromley.gov.uk

Further information is available at www.bromley.gov.uk/roadsafety