Sadly around 70% of all car seats in the UK are being used incorrectly. This page shows some of the most common issues.
The harness
Of all the car seat errors that we see, incorrectly fitted harnesses are by far the most common. When a child sits in their car seat, the only thing holding them in place is the seat's five-point harness, so it is vital that that harness is correctly fitted and adjusted. A harness that is too low, too high, loose and/or twisted won't protect your child in a crash. The straps should be level with the shoulders or just below (when rear facing) and you should not be able to fit more than two fingers between the straps and the child's chest. The straps should fit high up on the child's shoulders close to the neck, and not hang off the top of their arms. All parts of the harness straps should lie flat on the child's body over thin unpadded clothing.
Correct Shoulder Strap Height
In a rear facing car seat the shoulder straps should be level with, or just below the child's shoulders. This is especially important when the seat is reclined. It is the harness's job to hold the child in the seat and if the shoulder straps are too high, the child will slide up the seat's back rest in a crash subjecting the head and neck to unnecessarily high forces. Having the straps above the shoulders can be just as dangerous as the harness being too loose.
Make Sure It's Tight
A car seat's harness will only be effective in a crash if it is tightly adjusted across the child's body. A loose harness allows excess movement in a crash which can cause injuries, it enables the child to wriggle their arms out of the straps, and it can cause them to be ejected from the seat altogether. After doing up the buckle, pull the shoulder straps up through the buckle to remove the slack from the hips. Then hold the straps together with one hand and pull the adjuster strap at the bottom of the seat with the other to tighten the shoulder straps. Make sure there are no twists in the harness. Finally pull down the chest pads, these are designed to stop the straps from sliding off the shoulders. Get into the habit of loosening the straps before taking your child out of the seat. That way you will have to adjust them again every time you put him back in, and you can make sure that they are always tight enough. When the harness is tight enough you should not be able to get more than two fingers between the strap and the child's shoulder. Some people worry about hurting their child by 'over-tightening' the harness, but this is virtually impossible. The harness needs to be snug.
Here the harness is positioned on the shoulders, it is not twisted and it is tightly adjusted. Used in this way the harness does two jobs, it keeps the child in the seat, and it distributes the crash forces evenly across the body.
Children's skeletons, and in particular the neck and spine, are not mature enough to cope with the forces of a crash until they are at least four years old. Therefore forward facing is not a milestone you should look forward to or rush into. Forward facing R44/04 car seats can legally be used once a baby weighs 9kg, but for some babies that is as young as five or six months! And even R129's 15 month minimum doesn't go far enough. It is much safer to move your baby into an extended rear facing seat when they have outgrown their infant carrier, and to keep them rear facing until they are at least four years old and no longer fit in the seat. Some of the larger rear facing seats will last for six or even seven years.
This seat is the Axkid Minikid 2 which rear faces up to 25kg, it will last most children for about six years.
Seat Belt Routing
All car seats have guides that show where the seat belt should be routed to hold the seat firmly in place in your car. In R44/04 seats these are blue for rear facing and red for forward facing, and in new R129 seats they are all green. Most forward facing and extended rear facing seats also have a clip that the seat belt should be locked into. These clips are known as a lock-offs and are also blue for rear facing and red for forward facing in R44 seats, or green for both in R129 ones. If the seat belt is not routed correctly or not locked, the seat won't be safe.
In belt fitted infant carriers the lap belt goes over the baby's legs and the shoulder belt goes around the seat through a guide on the back. This is the Avionaut Pixel Pro 2.0 C and when this seat is belt fitted, the carry handle goes all the way forward.
Buckle Crunch
When a car seat is installed with the seat belt, it should be the seat belt webbing that holds the seat in place. In some cars the buckle stalks are quite long and this can result in the buckle resting on the plastic or metal structure of the car seat. This is known as buckle crunch and can cause the buckle to shatter in a crash. If you try a seat in your car and the buckle is too high, you can try a different position in the car, or you may need to choose a different car seat altogether.
This seat has been installed in a car with long buckle stalks. The buckle is too high and bends over the plastic structure of the seat.
This is how the seat belt and the buckle should look. The webbing is tight across the car seat and the buckle is flat.
Airbags
Rear facing car seats are legal and safe to use on the front passenger seat, but only if there is no active frontal airbag. Airbags shoot out of their housing at 200mph and the force of the impact on the back of the child's seat is enough to seriously injure or even kill them. So if you would like your little one to sit next to you, you have to switch the airbag off. This is possible in a lot of cars, but not in all of them. It is usually done with the key, the switch is either located in the passenger doorframe or inside the glove compartment. In some newer cars you can switch the airbag off in the control panel.
The advice on using forward facing car seats and boosters in the front seat varies from car to car, so you will need to consult the car's manual to see if the airbag should be switched off or stay on.
Using Booster Seats Too Early
High back boosters that meet the R44 regulation can legally be used from 15kg, and the R129 ones start from 100cm. These are the weight and height of an average three year-old. But a three year-old's bones are not strong enough to cope with the force of the adult seat belt in a crash. Children's skeletons are not mature enough to safely use a high back booster seat until they are at least five. Three is also much too young for a child to be able to sit up properly in the seat and stay there for the entire journey, so they should use their rear facing car seat until they have reached the weight or height limit.
While some older R44/04 booster cushions without a back rest can still be used from 15kg, R129 recognises that backless boosters are not suitable for young children. Therefore these booster cushions have a minimum height of 125 or even 135cm, which is seven or eight years old.
Not Following The Instructions
It is very important to read the manual and follow it to the letter. Do not use the seat in any way other than those outlined in the instructions. You sometimes see people use infant carriers forward facing. Or harnessed seats used as boosters. Or children in boosters with the diagonal seat belt under their arm. Or with the lap belt routed across their stomach instead of their hips. The list is endless. Doing this or anything else that is not in the instructions is extremely dangerous. Using a car seat incorrectly is just as dangerous as not using one at all.
'We Never Used Car Seats And We're Alright.'
This is an argument that some people use to justify not using a car seat for their child, and it obviously makes no sense at all. The only reason that nothing happened to them is that they were lucky enough not to be involved in an accident, this is known as survivor bias. But every year nearly 300 children and their parents are not so lucky. That is how many children are seriously injured and killed on our roads every year. Everybody thinks it won't happen to them. But it does happen, and when it does it's devastating and can change your life forever. And that is why every child who travels in a car, no matter how short the journey, needs to be in a correctly used car seat to give them the best protection possible should the worst happen. Because you never know when that might be...
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