Child Restraints Booster Seats & Booster CushionsEach year many thousands of children are injured or killed in the EU due to vehicle accidents. The updated UK Department of Transport (DoT) regulations (September 2006) concerning booster seats has sparked further interest and debate about vehicle child safety. The DoT estimates that implementation of these regulations could prevent over 2,000 child deaths or injuries each year in the UK.
The regulations state that children up to 135cms in height must use the appropriate child restraint when travelling in any car, van or goods vehicle - there are very few exceptions. RoSPA state that with booster seats:
- the belt should be worn as tight as possible with no slack
- the lap belt should go over the pelvic region (from hip-bone to hip-bone), not the stomach
- the diagonal strap should rest over the shoulder, not the neck
I was that impressed that I purchased another for my daughter who also uses a booster seat. With the CG Lock in place they are secured securely in their boosters seats and do not move around. More importantly the booster seats themselves do not move or tilt as they sometimes do going around roundabouts. I would recommend this device to parents with small children.Paul I (Staffs) Porsche 996 C4S.
Evidence is mounting from customers on just how much more secure their booster seat (or booster cushion) is when the CG-Lock is used. When a loose seatbelt is securing a child in a booster seat (as can occur when the child is moving about), the child seat can slide, tip, or rock even during normal cornering and braking. This movement poses proven risk to the child.
Group 3: for children weighing 22 - 36 kgs (48 - 79 lbs) roughly from 6 - 11 years.
They can be used in the front or rear of the car, but it is safer to put them in the rear, especially if there is a passenger airbag in the front.
Booster seats and booster cushions do not have an integral harness to hold the child in place. The adule seat belt goes around the child and the seat. So it is important that the seat belt is correctly adjusted. The basic points to note are:
- the belt should be worn as tight as possible
- the lap belt should go over the pelvic region, not the stomach
- the diagonal strap should rest over the shoulder, not the neck
Watch the video below to see what happens to a child in a booster seat when the driver takes evasive action (swerves)…
For infant car seats, RoSPA recommends: “Push the child seat towards the back of the vehicle seat, then press your body weight down into the child safety seat, and pull the excess belt webbing.of a lap/shoulder belt away from the buckle, taking out as much slack as possible. Activate the locking mechanism.” Statistics show that four out of five child safety seats are used incorrectly. This is because it is ergonomically difficult to do. Few cars have seatbelts that can lock the lap belt as recommended. We believe the CG-Lock may be a solution to this problem. The CG-Lock is currently being tested for use to help tether child seats too after customer feedback and testing indicated how easy the CG-Lock is in getting the correct tightness of the childseat… usually not possible when having to pre-tension the seatbelt and then push down on the childseat to click it in place. The Trademark SeatSnug® will be used for this application. An easy retrofit to the vehicle’s seatbelt for use for car child restraints, providing the requisite belt tightening and locking function in a more convenient form. With the SeatSnug®, adequate tightening — and releasing — is easier and faster than with other methods. In addition, when SeatSnug® is installed on rear passenger vehicle seatbelts, it can also be used when the booster seat is removed from the car (for better posture for adults using the seatbelt in the normal manner).
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