Research has shown that as many as eight out of ten child car seats are either not fitted correctly or are inappropriate for the child's age, size or weight. In some roadside tests many children were not wearing any kind of safety belt or restraint.

If sitting in the right type of seat and correctly restrained, a child is ninety percent less likely to be killed in a collision.

However an unrestrained child can be killed or seriously hurt in an impact at speeds as low as 5mph In a collision at 30mph, an unrestrained child would hit the front seat - and anyone sitting in it – with a force of between 30 to 60 times their own body weight.

Now the council is launching a new campaign to raise awareness amongst parents and carers about the urgent need to fit the right kind of car seat.

Safety leaflets, posters and other publicity material produced by the award-winning 'Good Egg'
children's car safety campaign have now been distributed to more than 130 local schools,
nurseries, hospitals, health centres and playgroups to make sure this important message gets
across to mums and dads.

This information and awareness campaign will be backed up by a series of free 'car clinic'
roadshows in the coming weeks where parents can have their child seats checked by safety
experts.

The council's transport spokesman Ravi Govindia said:
"The statistics are extremely worrying because they show that many of the car seats being used by parents are not as safe as one would hope".

June 7, 2010