The Loose in the car booklet (PDF 366K) is not just propaganda, it is based on two pieces of new research and The AA Motoring Trust’s experience in a decade of child seat fitting surveys at supermarkets and various events.
On many occasions The AA Motoring Trust has used its technical experts to look at how parents fit restraints and to advise them whether they have got it wrong and how to put it right. This has shown the magnitude of the misfitting problem – two in every three seats are misfitted, and half these misfittings are bad enough to pose a safety problem. But this work told little about the death and injury that this misfitting could cause. The Summary results from AA/BBC child restraint checks (PDF 46K) does, however, show just how many child safety seats are misfitted.
To remedy this, TRL (an independent organisation that provides research, consultancy, advice and testing for all aspects of transport) was commissioned to research real fatality reports of road accidents where children were killed in cars, with a particular emphasis on cases where the causes were the non-use of child restraints or where misfitting of the restraint looked to be a factor. Once this Non-use and misuse of child restraints: Case Studies from police accident reports (PDF 47K) document was completed, it was decided to recreate the accidents in a crash rig and to produce photographs to educate the public in just what a simple misfitting could mean. Then a number of the common errors that were identified in the supermarket tests were added. The result was a series of impact tests and the photographs shown in the leaflet. The Non-use and misuse of child restraints: Impact tests (PDF 626K) details these experiments and the injuries that could have resulted.
How good are child restraints?
The AA Motoring Trust, along with European motoring clubs and consumer organisations, has published a guide to the safety of child restraints.
At a glance – Child restraint test results 2003/4 (PDF 40K) details how the child restraints fared.
Full Test Results 2004 (PDF 113K) outlines the pros and cons of the child restraints tested, as well as explaining the protocols and the methodologies used.
Full Test Results 2003 (PDF 626K)
The AA Motoring Trust press release (PDF 37K) analyses the lessons to be learned from the child restraint tests by manufacturers, Government and parents.
To view the Loose in the car footage, click on the screen below
