Are you protecting your child well enough? - 11/12/06
Vale of Glamorgan Council Trading Standards is reminding
parents to ensure their children are travelling safely.
This follows after a child car seat check day at the Tesco car
park (Culverhouse Cross), which showed that 78% were incorrectly
fitted.
The free check was organised by Trading Standards in conjunction
with Council Road Safety Officers, and also on hand were the South
Wales Fire Service with their ‘crash car’ showing what can go wrong
in a car accident and the South Wales Police crime prevention
caravan.
Most car seats just needed some adjustment in order to make them
safe, but some were deemed to be unsuitable for the child and some
others incompatible with the car.
Fifty-one seats were tested, and advice offered to those
contemplating purchasing a car seat in the near future. Some
parents also asked for guidance concerning new legislation which
requires all children, under 135 centimetres or 12 years old, to
wear the correct restraint whilst travelling.
Faults found ranged from minor to major defects such as loose
belts, twisted harnesses and problems with the routing of the adult
belt. All of these failures could have led to injuries to children
if the vehicle was involved in an accident or severe sudden
braking. Every year around 10,000 children are injured or killed
whilst travelling in cars in Britain.
Trading Standards Consumer Education Officer Kate Palmer said:
"These statistics are, unfortunately, quite common. Many children
are not restrained properly in the car, which, if unchecked, could
be disastrous.
"This event shows that parents lack knowledge when fitting and
choosing child car restraints, especially when choosing the right
seat for their child. There is also a lack of continuous checks on
the car seats to make sure they remain safe and fitted correctly
for each and every journey.
"This year we had a first for the event. A mother-to-be actually
stopped en route to the hospital after her waters had broken to
have her car seat checked. A real case of ensuring that your bump
will be protected in the case of a bump in the car.”
Trading Standards will be carrying out another check in summer,
2007, and anyone requiring more information can contact event
co-ordinator Kate Palmer on (01446) 709105. Also log onto
www.childcarseats.org.uk for
more information.