Advertising Feature
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
WHILE car owners take the time to check their oil, their tyre pressure and their coolant levels regularly, they may be neglecting one of the vital pieces of safety equipment within the car: The child restraint.
Under the age of seven years, children must travel in the back seat of the car using an approved car seat or booster. Babies up to six months old must sit in a rear-facing seat.
Car seats have been introduced as a standard for their role in reducing the injuries and fatalities for children caught up in car crashes.
But having car seats in the vehicle is not enough. They need to be correctly fitted in order to be effective protection for children in a crash.
This Advertising Feature is sponsored by the following businesses. Click the link to learn more:
RACV records that up to 70 per cent of child restraints have not been installed properly. The organisation has recommended that car seats be professionally fitted by a trainedchild restraint fitter. This gives parents an opportunity to learn how to correctly fit the restraint. RACV has accredited services throughout the state to provide this service.
In this region, it is Wilson Bolton Holden in Horsham.
Service manager Michael Gray said the business began to offer the service again after noticing a lot of children’s seats in cars coming through the service centre were not fitted correctly.
Using a device called a gated buckle on the seat belt, the seat is drawn back close into the car and is less likely to move.
"We were seeing that, with a lot of the car seats, you could wobble the seats and it would come loose,” Mr Gray said.
The gated buckle holds the seat more firmly to the base of the seat, he said.
“You can wobble as much as you like and it won’t ever come loose.”
According to Kidsafe, the child accident prevention foundation, any restraint is preferable to not using any restraint.
They recommend that infants stay in the rear-facing seat as long as possible (as long as they safely fit within the rear-facing seat).
For children too large for a rear-facing seat, it is recommended parents use a forward-facing seat with a built-in six-point harness.
A child is allowed to use a booster seat from four-years-old, but Kidsafe recommends a forward-facing restraint as it provides greater safety.
When a child outgrows a restraint, it is still recommended they use a booster seat with a lap-sash seat belt until they are tall enough to fit into an adult seat belt.
To ensure a child’s safety, all child restraints and booster seats must be installed correctly, following the instructions from the manufacturer.