New! EU wants to forbid forward facing car seats

[MissHH]

Read more here:

kidsincars.blogspot.com/2008/06/new-european-research-children-should.html

What do you think? I can clearly understand why looking at that report.

Morningpaper. Do you really think that people shouldn't campaign for something on behalf of their children or are you just palying devils advocate? Isn't doing the best you can for your children quite a major part of parenting? Of course children hurt themselves and worse, but I think if something happened to my DD I'd prefere to know I did everything I could to prevent it...not that it would be much comfort.

'playing', not palying!

I cannot imagine not buying the safest carseat on the market just because my child is also at risk of being crushed by a television

In my opinion this is about securing the child in the best possible way on ares where it is possible to prevent major injuries or even, sadly, death. It is not about foot following ones child when it plays out in the garden.

After my shocking trips to mothercare and halford and being told it was fine to put my 7 month old in a ff seat as she is heavy enough.I went into volvo last night they were so helpful can order rf britax isofix would be in next day can try it in our car if we dont like it or does'nt fit we dont have to take it £104 for base (which u might have already if u have a britax baby seat) and £124 i think it was for the seat.
We live on a very tight budget but i want to keep my child as safe as i can and thank my lucky stars that have never had any bumps with older dd.I could not live with myself now knowing the facts if anything was to happen. I think that they should have the crash test video on in the shop all the time beside the car seats and parents can make their own mind up on ff or rf once they have more info as a lot of my freinds thought i was mad keeping dd rf so long until i let them see crash test.If i hadnt come across the video i would be turning my dd around so i could see her lovely face.

Kezboosnez, I agree with you about Volvo...they were fab with me too and the main bloke I dealt with couldn't believe that he sold so few as he's seen all the crash test footage too.

There are photo's in the instruction booklet about how to fix the tethering straps in non-Volvo cars.

Rather ridiculous considering most cars on the road don't even have air bags or get to go on the road with an Ncap rating of 1 star (Chrysler Grand Voyager..family car) you'd think they'd start with legislating that!!

Should I watch a video before posting a comment? Of course we'd buy one if it's loads safer, we already have a 5 star fully airbagged, safest car on the road car....

Just to clarify (me again) if my car's seats can go either way what's safer a FF with the seat RF, or a RF carseat with the car's seat RF or FF.....

Here is a good place to find out what we're not being informed about Twelvelegs.

If you don't have much time now, just head straight to the gallery and watch the crash test demo's....

Just had a look but can't get the RF ones up.....

A car seat should always be placed in the direction it is supposed to be. An FF car seat can not be placed in a reversible seat in the car(somebody thinks that it will be the same as RF).

Try here then.

the kg limit on car seats are bullshit in my opinion, my ds outgrew two seats in length way before weight. So if he goes in a rf seat that's suitable for his weight his head will no be protected! So how the fuck does weight and height get incorporated, we'll have to get a flatbed trailer and hook him up to the back of the car in a cocoon!

MissHH, I was just asking whether it's the impact of the crash that means it's safer to rear face or the position of the RF compared to FF. So when I face my DCs backward in the car should they still have a RF seat....IYKWIM.

You can get RF Group 1 seats which have been tested to 25kgs Spacepuppy.

Surely it's the design of car seats that's quite lazy if it's not impact related. How would a rear impact crash affect? Or not so bad because they're never likely to be so fast?
Surely if we continued with the design of the more sturdy car seats we could still face forward?

Yes pixiepants, but does that mean it takes into account that children might be taller than the weight that the seat can take? So if he weighs 20kg but his head sticks out the top, is he still protected?

Sorry, didn't explain very well. But the Group 1 RF are similar shell size (if not the same) as Group 1 FF. So if you do run into problems here, you would face the same ones FF. Not very helpful I know....sorry.

MP - thank god for the plasma tv trend then!

he is only too tall for it once eyes become level with the back of th4e seta. atleast thats whats i've been told

Twelvelegs, most seats are sturdy enough FF & RF, unfortunately childrens heads are just too big for their bodies and their necks are too vulnerable 'til around 4 years...can't change much about that design apart from face them backwards.

Twelvelegs : I'm sorry, I misunderstood.

The biggest RF seats in Scandinavia can fit children a little over 120 cm.

If you dive into the report you will see the reason why RF is safer.

The reason:

The head of a little child makes up about 25% of the total weight of a child(1/4 of the body), on a adult the heads weight is about 6-7% of the total body weight. A childs schelleton isn't mature enough and the childs neck isn't sufficiently developed for holding the head in a car crash, and the childs entire body is much more weaker than on an older child/adult. In a frontal the heavy weight of the childs head will inflict terrible strain on the neck when a child is FF. If a child is properly restrained in a RF car seat the damage reducing effect in a frontal is 90-95% against 50-60% in a FF car seat.

If one is rear ended:
Most of the rear enders happens at a much lower speed than frontals(often one car is standing still or driving very slowly). According to insurance companies here where I live the majority of material claims comes from rear endings but the majority of claims caused by serious injuries or deaths comes from frontal accidents.

That is why it is important to protect the child from the most dangerous possible situation.

This will show you the different in rather clearly:

Short version: blip.tv/file/815221

Long version: adventuredad.blip.tv/file/872531/