Car accident - child car seats question...

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I had a car accident recently - thankfully my 3 children were not in the car. However their car seats were - 2 high back booster seats and one maxi cosi priori. Are they to be scrapped even though they were not carrying children at point of impact? I'm not clear why this is the case if they are now considered unsafe. My insurance company is not paying out for car seats.

afaik the priori would need to be replaced as it was strapped in tightly but the boosters don't. i asked in mothercare years ago when i dp had an accident and he said the booster didn't need to be replaced as it was not strapped in tightly.

hopefully someone else will know and confirm this or not...and my friend got her seats replaced when she had her accident by insurance company.

and sorry meant to ask how you were? are you ok?

I think it's terrible that your insurance company won't pay out for the seats. Is that the same for all of them? Surely that just encourages people not to replace them?

Thanks for explanation loopymumsy, I'm inclined yo replace them as actually they have been bumped twice in last 6 months. First was a rear collison - but v minor someone bumped me at a traffic light, again no kids on board. Latest was more severe, front impact collision and my car written off as a result - miraculously I only suffered minor scratches - thanks for asking ncim. Am now looking at getting proper isofix car seats as the fright made me realise how lucky I was not to have the children in the car. But they are way more expensive than graco booster seats and looking at forking out nearly £400 to replace all 3. Not that I am putting a price on my children's safety, but it's a lot and I will certainly be asking next insurance company to ensure I am covered for replacement.

If I were you I would contact Maxi Cosi and ask them what their policy is. If they say that they need replacing, ask them to put it in writing and then hassle your insurance company for the info.

IIRC, when I had a crash (rear impact at lights, my insurance company asked if DS had been in the car (which he was) and on that basis said they would pay out (was a Maxi Cosi Priorifix too, so £££). (They certainly implied that they wouldn't have replaced the seat otherwise )

Is it that your insurance doesn't replace car seats as standard, or are they saying that they don't need replacing in this instance?

Also try John Lewis for info, they're usually quite well informed in this kind of area and it might be good to have two reputable sources for info on why replacing the seat is necessary.

Insurance company have made no comments on car seats other than to send cheque for value of car. We wrote to them asking about the car seats before receiving the settlement and they did not respond. Might get on to maxi cosi and retailers as you advise jareth... And try them again. As I said, now want to replace all 3 with isofix seats. The car I have just had written off was only 3 years old and I only had it 3 months it had leather seats and tbh, I felt there was too much movement in the non anchored seats in this car compared to our previous cloth upholstered car. However, insurance paying out would go some way to getting new seats.

I have c4 grand picassos and that had 3 full sized seats with isofix and are very happy with my 2 kidfix car seats and my britax duo

I have driven a chrysler grand voyager for many years, and in process of getting another one to replace the last one, so fitting 3 car seats is not a problem - my 2 younger kids the single cabin seats in middle of the car and eldest sits in the middle of the back seat. I've been reading about the rear facing debate on this forum actually, and considering it for the youngest who is 2, my boys are 5 and 7, so not appropriate for them (plus eldest looks more like a 9 year old with his long legs ).

On the subject of isofix car seats, anyone got advice? I went to halfords today and looked at the recaro monza seatfix and the britax safefix and tried all 3 kids in them. Dd who is nearly 3 (and tall like brother) was deemed by assistant to be ok in the recaro, but too small for the britax. I think I liked the fabric/comfort of the recaro better too? Don't really know which way to go and i wasn't looking at rear facing ones till I read forums here this evening.

isofix car seats are no safer than properly fitted belted ones but when i get a booster i would probably buy an isofix one as you don't have to belt it in when not using it.

wrt rf i have the KISS and the britax two way elite. i use one for ds and one for my mindee. once i had heard of rf and got one for ds i couldn't put mindee into a ff one as she was younger than him and it didn't feel right iykwim. good luck with your choice-you have a big enough car to get nearly any seats you want!

Definitely pursue your insurance company for the cost of replacing the seats.

I sent my insurers a copy of this standard letter from ROSPA, and thye quickly changed their mind and paid for the seat.

Excellent - thanks for that piprabit! Mission today is to email mothercare, halfords and john lewis to get their op and then send off to insurer with this standard letter. Can't believe I have had children this long and never checked this issue out before getting insurance, will be making it a priority in future.

Success! Insurance company are paying out for 3 new car seats. All very straightforward once I actually got to speak to the claims handler directly as opposed to communicating through email or foreign call centre. Very happy. Just waiting for the cheque to arrive now.