South Gloucestershire Council

Published: 08/08/2013

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 148 child car seats were checked at a previous event in Soundwell and of those only 76 (including booster seats) 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 Soundwell, two out of five young people were found to be under this limit with no booster seat available.

Road safety officer Pamela Williams said: “The car seat safety checks provide a great opportunity to find out from experts the right way to fit in-car child safety seats. We are not trying to catch people out, but provide reassurance to parents that their young ones are safe and secure when out on the road.”

Chief Inspector Yan Georgiou of Avon and Somerset’s Roads Policing Unit said: “Drivers may be aware of the general safety checks required for their vehicle, such as oil, water and tyre checks, but these events give us an opportunity to make sure motorists are aware of some of the other important safety considerations that are less automatic.

He added: “We are keen to work with our partners to increase the safety of all road users and these events are one of the ways we can help to do this. We would encourage anyone with child car seats to come along to the safety check session to get it checked over and meet the team.”

Any parents, grandparents, childminders or carers who would like to have their car seat checked voluntarily are welcome to stop by Thornbury Fire Station on Gloucester Road, Thornbury BS35 1JH between 8.30am and 4pm on Wednesday 14 August.

The council’s road safety team will be holding similar events at various locations in South Gloucestershire throughout the year.