South Gloucestershire Council

Published: 12/07/2013

Between 8.30am and 4pm, police officers will stop vehicles carrying young people to allow our road safety team to check if child car seats are fitted correctly. We are offering these free checks to give reassurance to parents that their children are safe and secure when travelling by car.

Previous car seat safety checks carried out in South Gloucestershire have shown that almost half are fitted incorrectly. A total of 160 child car seats were checked at a previous event in Kingswood and of those only 82 were found to be fitted correctly. Many of the faults found related to seat belts or harnesses.

Young people travelling as passengers will also be measured to ensure they are the correct height. The legal requirement is 135cm unless they are sitting on a booster seat. At the checks in Kingswood, 8 out of 11 young people were found to be under this limit with no booster seat available.

Chief Inspector John Holt of Avon and Somerset’s Roads Policing Unit said: “Safety checks such as these offer the perfect opportunity to educate drivers about the importance of keeping themselves and their passengers safe. We are committed to reducing the number of people, young and old who are killed or seriously injured whilst travelling on our roads.”

Road safety officer Pamela Williams said: “The majority of drivers we stop are happy with the checks and grateful for the advice given. Any parents, grandparents, childminders or carers who would like to have their car seat checked voluntarily are welcome to stop by Soundwell Ambulance Station on Lansdown Road, Kingswood BS15 1XA between 8.30am and 4pm on Thursday 18 July.”

The council’s road safety team will be holding a similar event in Thornbury during August.