A study done at the end of 2014 found that 3/4 of parents are unsure of the safest way to seat young children in cars. The study by Volvo states that 74% of parents with children under 4 thought front facing car seats were the best, when in reality rear facing is up to 5x safer in the event of an accident. The statistics between the UK and Sweden where extended rear facing till 4 is the norm, for deaths and serious injuries to children in a car crash make for sobering reading. In 2013 no child under the age 0f 6 died and there were 10 serious injuries in Sweden compared to 77 deaths and serious injuries of children under 4 in the UK in 2013.
Car seat safety is something that I feel quite passionately about. I have previously posted about the new i-size laws that are being phased in. It’s not very clear until you sift through all of the data and I still see a lot of people on social media who are confused about it all. You can read the post on i-size here and hopefully it will help to answer any questions about i-size and extended rear facing you might have.
From birth to 12 years (unless they reach 135cm before that) your child should be seated in the car with a seat. Some points to note when thinking about car seat safety can be found here and are in the image below.
This post is so useful thankyou! I am shocked at the statistics for preventing accidnets in toddlers and children. I feel this should be something health visitors are doing more with aswell even if it’s just giving a leaflet in the form of what you have posted. I see so many times my parents even going out into the car with a car seat and yet have the newborn on their lap. I think people just assume it won’t happen to them.
the statistics are shocking aren’t they! I get really annoyed when I see people in cars without their babies/children properly strapped in. You’re right more needs to be done to educate people x