almost in a side impact crash, what can i do to prevent it? LO rearfacing

[JuneMummy]

ok, once a week my LO has to go to his grandparents while i go to work. they live on a very busy little country road and their house is situated on a blind bend. the worst position for a house i think! so each week when i go there i have to wait until no cars are behind me so that i can reverse, I cant pull onto the drive as i would then have to reverse out onto the road which will be even more dangerous.

so yesterday as im reversing, a car comes flying round the bend on the opposite side of the road with two other cars closely behind him. i Slammed on my break and luckily avoided a very serious side impact crash which would have involved at least 4 cars!! a quarter of a second later i would have been on the opposite side of the road just pulling into the drive and there's no way these cars would have avoided me. It's scary how fast people drive round a blind bend! my in- laws have actually witnessed a few crashes because of it.

what can i do because it really is pot luck on missing a car each time i reverse and im terrified we are going to be hit one day. i wind me window each time to listen for cars coming but as its near the motor way its hard to tell.

my son is rearfacing in a stage 1 britax two way elite. Do you think this carseat is safe enough for a side impact?? im really worried about it

thank you

From what I've read, rear facing seats are just as safe as forward facing in a side impact. I would just make sure that your son is the opposite side of the vehicle to where a collision is most likely in your situation.

Oh, and I'd suggest you or the GPs get in touch with the local council, to see if there is anything they can do to slow traffic down around the bend, or maybe put one of those mirrors up, something like that?

I would suggest contacting the council too,as if the bend is that dangerous its only a matter of time before someone gets hurt.We have our dds in that car seat too-(they are 3 and 6 and still fit in it)I think it did well in side impact collisions as far as I remember-you could have a look at www.rearfacing.co.uk to see.What sort of car do you have?

As you are reversing out of the driveway and making a turn onto one of the roads on the side, a side impact would be just like a side impact when going forwards and the child is sitting in a forwardfacing carseat. baby´s head will most likely to go out of the car seat since it is rearfacing and the impact is coming from the side and behind the car.

Contact the local counsil, ask for a road mirror.

Last but not least, put LO in the front passenger seat and install the seat on dash. Deactivate the airbag.

Lena

thank you so much for your replies. Great idea to contact the council. I will phone them on monday and explain how dangerous it is. LO is currently sat behind the passenger seat so he wouldnt be directly hit in the side impact but still could be seriously hurt.

I heard that not all air bags could be deactivated even if you did switch it off there is still a chance it could go off?

thank you for the help, much appreciated x

Hellymelly i have a VW bora x

I have only heard of airbags in cars in the USA and Canada going off unexpectedly. But their airbags are very different from ours.

The Swedes have allways used the front seat for older children. Still they have the world´s most admireable statistics. Deaths and serious injuries among children this age group is virtually zero.

Lena

Well according to wiki that car does well in safety tests for its size, but although you are doing everything you can in terms of your carseats etc to stay safe,obviously you want to avoid a collision to start with,so contacting the council,as you are about to do,is the biggy,and also maybe contacting the local paper and the local police with your concerns.

ok thank you. I have sent an email to the parish council as a starting point so just waiting to hear back from them. Hopefully it will be some time next week