Mao
08-27-2006, 12:11 PM
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/5279142.stm - some of the comments made me laugh!)
Take your seats
From next month, many children who thought they had grown out of sitting in child car seats will have to go back into them, as new rules come into force. And among parents there is widespread uncertainty about what the new laws mean.
From 18 September, children up to the age of 12, or up to the height of 135 cm, will have to use safety seats - which could mean that youngsters who have spent several years in adult seats will now need to return to using child seats.
Safety campaigners and motorists' organisations have all welcomed the changes - which the Department for Transport says will reduce the number of child casualties in traffic accidents by about 2,000 per year. But there are serious concerns that families are not receiving adequate information about what seats they will need and how the new regulations will operate. And failure to comply will mean court fines up to £500.
"We have been receiving an awful lot of calls from very confused motorists," says Sheila Rainger of the RAC Foundation. "These drivers know something is changing over child car seats - but beyond that they don't know where to get any information."
Worried parents
"We need some really simple-to-understand guidance for parents," she says.
The AA Motoring Trust also echoes this concern, saying they're also receiving anxious calls from people uncertain about the requirements. And retailers are reporting consumer confusion. Caroline Reynolds, who works in the nursery section at John Lewis, says customers ask: "Is this really true?"
A spokesman for the Department for Transport says the message has reached parents and that people will recognise that it's an important step in reducing injuries. And the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (Rospa) says that it's not about catching people out, but taking the next step in improving the safety of children in cars.
Rospa's road safety officer, Duncan Vernon, says almost 8,000 children are killed or injured in car accidents each year and the new rules should reduce that by a quarter. In particular, it will address the injuries caused by children who are not correctly restrained in the back seats - with a collision at 30mph throwing a child forward with a force that is 30 to 60 times its body weight.
Belt up
While parents are usually careful about protecting babies and young toddlers, many children stop using car seats before they're physically large enough for an adult safety belt - which are designed for people who are 150 cm (about 5 feet) and taller.
If there's a crash and a child less than this height is wearing an adult belt it can cause serious damage to the child's internal organs.
The idea of tightening the regulations is to make sure that children use safety seats longer - until they're tall enough for adult seat belts, with the legal threshold set at 135 cm (about 4 feet 5 inches) or 12 years of age.
This doesn't mean having to buy a child seat with back or head protection: the requirement is that children are raised to a sufficient height. This legal minimum would be covered by a the backless plastic seats - sometimes called "booster cushions" - which cost about £20. But there are also car seats, including side protection, which can cost more than £200.
There are exceptions to the new regulations. If there is a one-off "unexpected necessity", parents are allowed to waive the restrictions - but this will not apply to the school run. If families take turns in picking up each others' primary school children, they will now have to equip their car with enough appropriate car seats.
However, in another exception, many cars are not big enough to accommodate three seats across the back - so families in such cases will be able to travel with only two car seats.
Baby-seat embarrassment
A tougher question could be persuading image-conscious children who have stopped using car seats to get back into a "baby seat".
Maeve, a seven-year-old from south London, says she wouldn't mind going back to a booster seat if other children of her age had to do the same - and that sitting higher would mean seeing "more than just the tops of trees".
But her older sister, Anna, aged nine, was less convinced and complained about being squashed and uncomfortable in a child seat. Pride could also be bruised.
"It would be embarrassing if you had to use one when none of your other friends did - people who are not tall enough might get teased about being in a baby seat," she said.
The Department for Transport has tips such as letting children give the seat a name. "He will be happier to sit on 'Henry' the seat if it's a name he has chosen." Perhaps.
Another major unresolved problem is the question of making sure that car seats are correctly fitted.
Fitting a seat
Anyone who has wrestled with a child seat will know how difficult they can be to install - and without taking it to be checked by an expert, there's no clear way of knowing if it is correctly secured.
"The number of misfitted seats is a large concern for us - we've got results from all kinds of surveys suggesting that it is up to 70% or 80%," says Rospa's Duncan Vernon.
This figure would suggest that many of the newly-bought car seats are going to end up being incorrectly installed - undermining the safety improvements.
But Mr Vernon says the big improvement on the horizon is a new international standard which makes car seats easier to secure, called International Standards Organisation FIX (Isofix).
This system, now being put into new cars, gives a much more rigid connection - and when it's connected correctly a green light shows.
But even though it's about child safety, it's still about cost - and Isofix systems are currently about twice the price of standard fittings. Mary Davis, who buys car seats for John Lewis, says that Isofix prices are going to come down.
But in the next few weeks, in the run up to the deadline for the new seat regulations, the RAC says the "serious problem" is the lack of public knowledge for families.
"Being realistic, parents are busy people. They want to do the best for their children, but it's important to make it as easy as possible to get that information," says Ms Rainger.
Take your seats
From next month, many children who thought they had grown out of sitting in child car seats will have to go back into them, as new rules come into force. And among parents there is widespread uncertainty about what the new laws mean.
From 18 September, children up to the age of 12, or up to the height of 135 cm, will have to use safety seats - which could mean that youngsters who have spent several years in adult seats will now need to return to using child seats.
Safety campaigners and motorists' organisations have all welcomed the changes - which the Department for Transport says will reduce the number of child casualties in traffic accidents by about 2,000 per year. But there are serious concerns that families are not receiving adequate information about what seats they will need and how the new regulations will operate. And failure to comply will mean court fines up to £500.
"We have been receiving an awful lot of calls from very confused motorists," says Sheila Rainger of the RAC Foundation. "These drivers know something is changing over child car seats - but beyond that they don't know where to get any information."
Worried parents
"We need some really simple-to-understand guidance for parents," she says.
The AA Motoring Trust also echoes this concern, saying they're also receiving anxious calls from people uncertain about the requirements. And retailers are reporting consumer confusion. Caroline Reynolds, who works in the nursery section at John Lewis, says customers ask: "Is this really true?"
A spokesman for the Department for Transport says the message has reached parents and that people will recognise that it's an important step in reducing injuries. And the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (Rospa) says that it's not about catching people out, but taking the next step in improving the safety of children in cars.
Rospa's road safety officer, Duncan Vernon, says almost 8,000 children are killed or injured in car accidents each year and the new rules should reduce that by a quarter. In particular, it will address the injuries caused by children who are not correctly restrained in the back seats - with a collision at 30mph throwing a child forward with a force that is 30 to 60 times its body weight.
Belt up
While parents are usually careful about protecting babies and young toddlers, many children stop using car seats before they're physically large enough for an adult safety belt - which are designed for people who are 150 cm (about 5 feet) and taller.
If there's a crash and a child less than this height is wearing an adult belt it can cause serious damage to the child's internal organs.
The idea of tightening the regulations is to make sure that children use safety seats longer - until they're tall enough for adult seat belts, with the legal threshold set at 135 cm (about 4 feet 5 inches) or 12 years of age.
This doesn't mean having to buy a child seat with back or head protection: the requirement is that children are raised to a sufficient height. This legal minimum would be covered by a the backless plastic seats - sometimes called "booster cushions" - which cost about £20. But there are also car seats, including side protection, which can cost more than £200.
There are exceptions to the new regulations. If there is a one-off "unexpected necessity", parents are allowed to waive the restrictions - but this will not apply to the school run. If families take turns in picking up each others' primary school children, they will now have to equip their car with enough appropriate car seats.
However, in another exception, many cars are not big enough to accommodate three seats across the back - so families in such cases will be able to travel with only two car seats.
Baby-seat embarrassment
A tougher question could be persuading image-conscious children who have stopped using car seats to get back into a "baby seat".
Maeve, a seven-year-old from south London, says she wouldn't mind going back to a booster seat if other children of her age had to do the same - and that sitting higher would mean seeing "more than just the tops of trees".
But her older sister, Anna, aged nine, was less convinced and complained about being squashed and uncomfortable in a child seat. Pride could also be bruised.
"It would be embarrassing if you had to use one when none of your other friends did - people who are not tall enough might get teased about being in a baby seat," she said.
The Department for Transport has tips such as letting children give the seat a name. "He will be happier to sit on 'Henry' the seat if it's a name he has chosen." Perhaps.
Another major unresolved problem is the question of making sure that car seats are correctly fitted.
Fitting a seat
Anyone who has wrestled with a child seat will know how difficult they can be to install - and without taking it to be checked by an expert, there's no clear way of knowing if it is correctly secured.
"The number of misfitted seats is a large concern for us - we've got results from all kinds of surveys suggesting that it is up to 70% or 80%," says Rospa's Duncan Vernon.
This figure would suggest that many of the newly-bought car seats are going to end up being incorrectly installed - undermining the safety improvements.
But Mr Vernon says the big improvement on the horizon is a new international standard which makes car seats easier to secure, called International Standards Organisation FIX (Isofix).
This system, now being put into new cars, gives a much more rigid connection - and when it's connected correctly a green light shows.
But even though it's about child safety, it's still about cost - and Isofix systems are currently about twice the price of standard fittings. Mary Davis, who buys car seats for John Lewis, says that Isofix prices are going to come down.
But in the next few weeks, in the run up to the deadline for the new seat regulations, the RAC says the "serious problem" is the lack of public knowledge for families.
"Being realistic, parents are busy people. They want to do the best for their children, but it's important to make it as easy as possible to get that information," says Ms Rainger.