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Child car seat safety checks

This news article was published more than a year ago. Some of the information may no longer be accurate.

Published: 09/10/2013


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 two thirds are fitted incorrectly. A total of 152 child car seats were checked at a previous event in Yate and of those only 69 (including booster seats) were found to be fitted correctly. Two seats were found to be unsafe or not compatible with the car and drivers were advised to purchase a new seat, 13 seats had major faults and 57 seats had minor faults. Many of the faults found related to incorrectly fitted seat belts or harnesses.

Young people travelling as passengers will also be measured to ensure they are the correct height to safely use seatbelts. The legal requirement is 135cm unless they are sitting on a booster seat. At the checks in Yate, two 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. The majority of drivers we stop are happy with the checks and grateful for the advice given. We are not trying to catch people out, but provide reassurance to parents that their young ones are safe and secure when travelling out on the district’s roads.”

Any parents, grandparents, childminders or carers who would like to have their car seat checked voluntarily are welcome to stop by Filton BAWA, Southmead Road between 8.30am and 4pm on Tuesday 15 October.


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