|
We all know that waggling children out of high windows is wacko behaviour of the first order. And while any sane adult would shudder at the idea of taking a leaf out of the parenting skills handbook of Michael Jackson, those that incorrectly fit child car seats are inadvertently putting their kids in similar danger – an accident at just over 30mph is equivalent to a small child falling out of a fourth floor window. Unfortunately recent reports suggest that those who don’t fit child seats correctly are in the majority – barely a quarter of us get it right. Not making sure the child seat is firmly fixed to the seat or forgetting to check the seatbelts for slackness are two common mistakes but there are others too (see our child seat top tips box).
One recent initiative that can help parents make safer car and car seat choices and which is already pushing carmakers and carseat makers to work closer together to make more child-friendly cars, comes from an organisation called Euro NCAP. The independent outfit has been crashtesting cars to ascertain occupant and pedestrian safety for many years. Its star rating system is often used in carmakers’ advertising. Renault, for one, makes much of the fact its range offers seven five-star NCAP cars.
While these ratings are laudable andindicate a focus on safety for adult passengers, they do not necessarily mean those same cars are safe for kids.
To rectify this, since November 2003, Euro NCAP started awarding separate child safety ratings.
If this new extra child star system works even half as well as the overall Euro NCAPcrash safety star rating already has on overall car safety, it will be fantastic news for parents. The first car to gain a high ‘four-star’ child safety rating was the dad-friendly mini-MPV Ford Focus C-Max (reviewed in FQ issue 3). Other family-friendly models
|
have followed suit, so that in 2005 there’s already well over a dozen cars with four stars out of a possible five for child safety. See our table or look on Euro NCAP’s website www.euroncap.com for updates – new cars tend to be tested in batches of similar models periodically throughout the year.
However, it’s not good enough to simply buy a car that has done well in the test. The rating is for the car with a specific seat – the ratings cannot be used for the car or the car seat in isolation. The Renault Modus, for example, only gets its four-star Child NCAP rating by using a Britax Romer Duo Plus seat. Renault recommends other child seats for some of its other cars.
To find out which car seat makes your proposed car safest, look for the car you’re interested in on the Euro NCAP website and then seek out the child safety info on it. If you can’t find that or don’t have web access, harangue your local dealer, or look at carmaker’s brochures.
A perusal of the cars that have been Euro NCAP tested reveals the vast majority do not have a child safety rating. This is not an oversight on the part of the carmakers, but usually just an indication that these cars came out before the child-specific part of the test was in place. Putting cars into the NCAP tests is expensive for carmakers and so usually only done when they are first made or when there is a group of cars available to test together.
But if your car was launched in 2004 or after and has no child safety rating, the question ‘why’ is one well worth raising with your dealer.
The overall good news is that despite the scary statistics and analogies regarding kids and car safety, child-related deaths on UK roads are reducing (from almost 500 in 1981 to 160 in 2002). |
However, one death is still one too many, so do your family a favour and check your child seat is correctly anchored plus the right size for your kids before you want to drive somewhere (see our ‘child seat top tips’ box). It’s dull, sometimes fiddly, and requires forethought, but it’s so much easier than leaning over them when they’re already in the car, tired, fidgety, sick or screaming. After all, the distraction of worrying about the seat not being right could be even worse. As safety stalwarts Renault sagely put it: “If parents know their child is safe in the back, they can concentrate on the road.”
Click Here for Child safety top tips>>
Car Seats Buyers Guide>>
|
