To think its utter bollocks that child car seats have only saved 1 life a year since they became law

[NeedsAsockamnesty]

In the UK.

I have just seen that claim made by someone and it's boggled my brain.

It can't be right can it?

And even if it is what about serious injury.
Every report I read says pretty much child car related fatalities and serious injuries decrease almost every year.

[badabeedabom]

Even if it was true - that one life could be your child!

[NeedsAsockamnesty]

I get that, I'm a massive fan of car seats.

[harderandharder2breathe]

I can't believe it's such a low figure

Even if it is... one child's life saved each year by something that is as easy as putting them in a car seat... that could be your child... of course it's worth it

[badabeedabom]

No I know, it was more that I was sharing your outrage

[Pitchforktotheface]

That's got to be ridiculous. Where did you read it?

[littlefrog3]

Silly question, but how do they know?

They would have to NOT be in the child seat to know if they would have died wouldn't they?

Or am I just being thick?

[Iggi999]

A car seat will often make the difference between your child staying in the car and being thrown through the window in an accident. How can that possibly save only one life?

[HardcoreLadyType]

I think their statement sounds unlikely. I would want them to show me how this was quantified.

I bet they got it off Facebook.

[duchess22]

That sounds off to me! what about little babies? surely without a car seat a two month old would definitely be harmed in a car accident?! I'm so confused by this...

[NeedsAsockamnesty]

That's got to be ridiculous. Where did you read it?

In a very ranty text message from a relative to another relative, sending relative is normally quite switched on and spemds a lot of time lurking and reading gov reports (they have not provided a ref for it)

I personally think it cant possibly be true but I have no clue where to look to find out

[KC225]

But how would you even measure such a thing?

[CantSleepClownsWillEatMe]

Rubbish. Was that an "official" claim Op or just some idiot rambling I wonder?

Worked in personal injury claims for years and believe me I've seen many cases where being in a car seat is what prevented fatal or catastrophic injuries to children!

[NeedsAsockamnesty]

hardcore there is not a chance it was FB related but there is a big chance that her translation has been twisted to suit what ever adjenda she has

[paxillin]

But surely number of "child miles in a car" per year have vastly increased since then so even if the number of children killed had not changed, many more would have otherwise died.

How many kids were driven to school 30 years ago and how many now?

[NeedsAsockamnesty]

I guess they would measure it by comparing child car passenger deaths from before car seats became law to now, but I can't even remember what year they became law

[NeedsAsockamnesty]

I'm kinda hoping someone will come along with links to some stats from before and since as there are so many better info gatherers than me on here

[CecileSo]

Locally a baby died because she wasn't in a car seat (was sat on her mothers lap). She would have been saved by a car seat. The other children in the car were fine (all in car seats)

[Carseatladies]

Having worked in road casualty reduction and as a national advisor for child in car safety, I can assure you this is isn't correct. Firstly the Police are not required to (on the Stats 19 form ) state if a child was in a car seat or not. So it isn't possible to say categorically how many children have died in car seats in a year, never mind how many lives have been saved.
Having helped thousands of parents each year with their car seats, It would be easy to say that showing them how to correctly fit their seat and their child into the seat has prevent their child being killed ,but we'll never actually know.
The facts are that 50% aren't fitted correctly or aren't correct for the child or the vehicle.
And can you think of any other "baby product" that is a legal requirement for a parent to have? If it only save one life a year I think we'd all be asking why ?

[Anon1234567890]

Could it be that since car seats became compulsory, parents have become much more aware of the danger and have driven in a much safer/slower way as a result. Hence less fatalities due to increased awareness, not just the actual car seat.

[littledinaco]

It's not only lives they save but they type of injury they prevent. So the difference between being critically ill with life long injuries for example and minor whiplash.

[VonNeurosis]

If you want some hard statistics; researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN02198/SN02198.pdf

There were on average 1633 deaths or serious injuries of under 17's who were passengers in cars in 1994-1997. In 2012 there were 416.

Comparing that with all ages groups that decreased from 8619 to 3004, you would expect under 17's to be around 570 if they followed that general trend. That's quite a substantial excess and mandatory child seats would be a reasonable explanation for the change.

[DailyFaily]

Doesn't sound right but I don't know - it's not just about death though, I'm sure the severity of injuries sustained must have decreased also

[UterusUterusGhali]

I call bullshit.
If you look at RTA fatalities in the 60's, they were massive compared to today when you think of how much more traffic there is these days etc.

I don't have links, sorry.

[Carseatladies]

www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/533293/rrcgb-main-results-2015.pdf

Check page 22 - this could be where the suggestion comes from?
However this chart shows children aged 0-15 year. Most children stop using car seats by the age of 10 years. And as I commented earlier, there is no suggestion that any child was using a child restraint.

[ATruthUniversallyAcknowledged]

My children would both have been killed if it wasn't for their car seats. That's two in just one accident on one night.