| Product: |
General Car Seats |
| Date: |
22.02.01 (481 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: will save your childs life
Disadvantages: none really
Did you know that 90% of child deaths in road accidents are down to child seats that are fitted incorrectly? Ah yes you say but that wouldn’t happen to my child, I drive too safely. Well did you know that if your car crashes at just 5mph an unrestrained child could be catapulted forward with enough force to kill an adult? Grisly reading isn’t it?
And yet everyday whilst out and about I see parents risking their children’s lives by not using correct child seats. You see them bouncing about on the back seat while mom is chatting away. So this opinion is about to explain in grisly detail what happens to your child if you do not use a car seat, and if you do what happens when it is not fitted properly. I will not beat around the bush so if you are weak stomached – look away now.
Lets look at the actual car seats themselves first. When my daughter was ready for her stage 2 child seat, we brought a Britax Club Class – the best on the market. A couple of months later I visited MIRA (Motor Industry Research Association) to watch a 30 degree off front impact test on a Rover 200. Basically a concrete block is driven at the stationary car at 30 mph. In the car were two adult size crash test dummies and two child dummies – one unrestrained and one in a Britax Club Class. As you can imagine I was very interested to see how the seat performed. I asked the Crash Engineer what he thought of the seat. His reply should strike fear into your heart. “Well, its ok I suppose, the best of a bad bunch”. I was horrified! But apparently unless you remove the actual car seats and replaced them with ones specially designed for a child then everything else is second best.
So, onto the crash. Because it costs so much to crash a car (approx. £100,000) every inch of the car is filmed with pictures being taken every 1000th of a second so that nothing can be missed. The car was crashed and to be honest the mo
st striking thing was how fast 30mph seems compared to when doing it in a car. So the cars a mess and the dummies are covered in paint (I’ll explain in a moment). So we sit down to analyse the film frame by frame.
When the concrete block hits the car (or another car hits your car) the momentum of the block stopping is carried into the crash car, moving it backwards at around 25mph. This causes the occupants to move forwards – the unrestrained child hits the back of the seat in front at around 25mph pushing the seat into the path of the adult coming back to rest from the impact. Result? The child suffers massive head injuries and if they don’t kill him then the broken neck, collarbone, back, legs, dislocated kneecaps etc (need I go on) will. How can we tell this? Well the dummies have ‘paint bubbles’ attached to them in places which represent the soft tissue areas of the body (i.e. stomach area), When the paint bubble comes in contact with a part of the car they burst, this shows the amount of damage caused and the area of car which caused the damage.
The other child is more fortunate it has been strapped into a CORRECTLY fitted child seat. This child is bent double in the force of the impact and if its lucky enough to come back to rest in the same position is should only suffer a few bruises. If the child comes back to rest at an angle it too will receive head injuries (although not life threatening – well hopefully) Oh yes the adult in the drivers seat was killed by the unrestrained child – the force of the child hitting the seat BROKE it forcing the drivers face into the steering column. Both adults were wearing seat belts.
Not good reading is it, and this is carried out under laboratory conditions – out on the road the injuries are much worse.
So here are a few pointers for ensuring your child has a fighting chance in a car accident:
1. DO NOT use a rear fa
cing child seat in a front seat with passenger air bags – the force of the air bag opening forces your child seat back into the seat – breaking it and your child’s neck/back.
2. Restrain your children in the car EVERY time you use it. If a suitable child seat is not available use an adult seat belt. Just make sure they are restrained. Some protection is better than none.
3. Check and adjust safety harnesses for every trip. Slack harnesses can cause your child to suffer whiplash forces twice. (once from the adult seat belt locking then again from the slack child seat harness)
4. DO NOT (and I cannot stress this enough) use second hand car seats – they are designed to withstand force ONCE and once only. You cannot tell if the seat you are buying has been in an accident.
5. Never use a child seat past the designed child weight – always leave a few kilograms to spare when you go to the next stage up.
6. Do not use a forward facing seat before they are at the correct weight – babies who do not have good head control will suffer the same effects as being shaken – i.e. death, in a crash
7. NEVER hold a child in your lap in the front seat – if the force of you going forward and the seat belt moving backwards doesn’t crush the child, the dashboard will certainly kill him.
If you are unsure as to whether your child seat is fitted correctly – contact your local council. The Road Safety Officer should have some information to help you. Failing that Halfords will check that you car seat is fitted correctly for you (branches nation-wide)
So if I have frightened at least one of you into using a car seat every time you use the car I will be happy and I will have hopefully prevented your child from having life threatening injuries. (Still I know us dooyooers are just too sensible NOT to use a child seat) So £100 for a decent child s
eat suddenly doesn’t seem such a high price to pay does it?
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