Safety Takes A Back Seat

The Age

Saturday January 19, 2008

Barry Park

It pays to look at child restraints from more than one angle, advises Barry Park.

OUR children are our greatest investment. While they're small and fragile, we hold them close, tuck them up in bed in night and protect them in any way we can.

However, put them in a car and we risk doing serious injury to them in a crash.

The best protection we can afford them is to make the right decision when it comes to protecting infants and children in vehicles.

The RACV has just released its latest evaluation of child restraints, and the results show that not all of them are created equal.

One of the important findings to come out of the latest RACV child-restraint study is the revelation that some reversible restraints perform well when faced backwards but offer less protection than some rivals once the seat is turned forward-facing.

The Safe-n-Sound Compaq restraint scored the highest result when rearward-facing but fell almost to the bottom of the ranking when turned to face forwards.

Similarly, the Deluxe version of the same seat scored the third-highest ranking when facing rearwards but dropped to midfield when turned to face forward.

Meanwhile, the IGC GoSafe Cleo performed in the top four in both the rearward-facing and forward-facing tests.

Which, then, is the better buy?

"The key thing is for people to look at which restraints best suits their needs, and if they are looking at a convertible restraint, to look at it in both modes," RACV chief engineer Michael Case says.

"A convertible restraint is a viable option and can perform similarly well to dedicated design, but not necessarily in both modes."

Mr Case says that while every child restraint tested complied with Australian standards for safety and ease of use, setting a higher benchmark allowed the RACV to identify the minor differences between them.

Simulated crashes were done on 30 different child restraints ranging from dedicated rearward-facing restraints to booster seats for children weighing up to 26 kilograms.

Four different crash-test dummies were used representing nine and 18-month-old infants for the rear and forward-facing tests, a six-year-old for forward-facing tests, and a 10-year-old for booster seat tests.

The seats were tested for how well they performed in head-on, 90-degree side-on, and 66-degree side-on crashes. The pneumatic sled used to simulate the tests replicated a 56 km/h crash that produced G-forces up to 36 times the crash-test dummy's weight, while the side-impact tests replicated a 36 km/h crash generating G-forces of up to 17 times the dummy's weight.

Each child restraint was given a score out of four stars for safety, with one star indicating that the child restraint fully met the Australian design standard, and four stars indicating "exceptional crash protection".

They were also scored out of four for ease of use, detailing how easily the child restraint could be secured in a vehicle, the clarity of the installation instructions and how well the child was secured in the restraint.

Mr Case says the ease with which a child restraint can be fitted is an important part of how well a child is protected in a crash.

"It's one thing to have good safety, but it has to be easy to use," he says.

"A relatively high percentage of restraints aren't fitted and used correctly."

Check all the test results at racv.com.au.

THE WINNERS

REARWARD-FACING RESTRAINTS FOR BABIES

SAFE-N-SOUND COMPAQ

SAFETY: 4/5

EASE OF FITTING: 3/5

HOW MUCH? RRP $299

CONS: Safety rating drops to three stars - the third-worst result - once it turns to face forward for an older infant.

ALTERNATIVES: Safe-n-Sound Baby Safety Capsule (four-star safety, three-star ease of fitting); Safe-n-Sound Compaq Deluxe (four-star safety, three-star fitting); Safe-n-Sound Compaq Deluxe (four-star safety, three-star fitting).

WORST PERFORMERS: Safe-n-Sound Meridian (three-star safety, two-star fitting); Safe-n-Sound Unity (three-star safety, two-star fitting); Babylove Royalty/FI-500 (three-star safety, two-star fitting).

FORWARD-FACING RESTRAINTS FOR YOUNG CHILDREN

SAFE-N-SOUND SERIES 3

SAFETY: 3/5

EASE OF FITTING: 3/5

HOW MUCH? The Series 3 is no longer made, so the RACV recommends either the

Safe-n-Sound Meridian (RRP $509) or Explorer models (RRP $349).

CONS: Not a four-star performer, expensive.

ALTERNATIVES: Safe-n-Sound Meridian (three-star safety, two-star ease of fitting);

Safe-n-Sound Explorer (three-star safety, three-star ease of fitting); Babylove Sovereign/FI-304 (three-star safety, three-star ease of fitting).

WORST PERFORMERS: Safe-n-Sound Compaq (two-star safety, three-star ease of fitting), Babylove Toddler Rider/F1-100 (two-star safety, two-star ease of fitting); Babylove Royalty/F1-500 (two-star safety, two-star ease of fitting) .

BOOSTER SEATS FOR OLDER CHILDREN

INFA VARIO KID

SAFETY: 4/5

EASE OF FITTING: 2/5

HOW MUCH? RRP $130

CONS: Could be easier to set up correctly.

ALTERNATIVES: Hipod Barcelona (three-star safety, three-star ease of use); Safe-n-Sound Explorer with anti-submarining clip (three-star safety, three-star ease of use); Safe-n-Sound Hiliner (three-star safety, three-star ease of use).

WORST PERFORMERS: Babylove Bathurst/828 (one-star safety, two-star ease of use); Vita Travel Safe (one-star safety, two-star ease of use); IGC GoSafe Advance II (one-star safety, two-star ease of use).

© 2008 The Age

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