A New Child Car Safety Risk !

The vexing question of how to achieve child safety in the average car just got a bit more complex.  The law requires that children carried in cars be protected by the provision of child safety seats that vary according to both age and body weight. They are not cheap and it is essential that they be properly fitted to meet the safety standards claimed.

Many are fitted by the parents of the child and an amazingly high percentage get that wrong. Not all parents have the aptitude to follow an installation plan correctly and where there is the slightest doubt safety would be better served by paying the small fee to have the restraint installed professionally.

Now safety research by the Transurban Road Safety Centre at Newroscience  Australia has revealed that the make and model  of car has a big impact on how safely children travel even when they are in an approved safety seat and it has been properly installed as per the makers specifications.

The problem is the bumps, curves and armrests that each individual car manufacturer designs into the door to provide passenger comfort.   The positioning of the armrest can increase the likelihood of a child in a safety seat suffering a head injury in a crash by as much as 52 per cent.  That armrest is designed for the comfort of adult passengers and car design advances has luxury as a selling aid as brand competition becomes more intense.

In particular, the damage to a child in a car seat is enhanced by such protrusions when the accident takes the form of a high speed side impact.  When crash testing was first introduced the contour of the rear door of cars was usually flat and the  crash results mirrored that situation.   It was only the higher priced models that tended to have rear arm rests, but now that is universal in even the base product cars.

Even the positioning of that armrest can vary the danger.  A mid height armrest was found to be the most problematic but basically any protrusion on an otherwise flat door can impact into the child occupants space and cause a head injury.  The danger increases proportionally when the impact is by way of a side-on collision.

It seems that rear door configuration is another variable parents need to take into consideration when they decide to have children.  Harm reduction may become a selling point now this problem has entered the publicity cycle and future models may be configured accordingly.

Fortunately, rear armrests are relatively easy to remove by unscrewing the restraint and they can be put aside until the child has grown or the car is being replaced..  Just one more item to be ticked off for those who take child safety in cars seriously.