Child seat law undermined by patchy enforcement

September 18 marked the first anniversary of changes to child restraint law aimed at improving safety, but inconsistent enforcement and non-compliance are still endangering many children’s lives.

Appropriate child restraints are essential to protect children in vehicles involved in a road crash. In a 30mph crash, an unrestrained child would be thrown forward with a force of 30 to 60 times their own body weight. 326 children aged 0-11 were killed or seriously injured in cars in 2005.

Brake, the national road safety charity, welcomed the new law, but is concerned that its positive impact is being undermined. Despite the intention behind the legislation – to improve child safety – police action to support it has varied wildly, with some forces carrying out specific enforcement campaigns, but others saying they would not even fine offenders, if caught. There is a currently a fixed penalty fine of £30 if drivers are caught with children not using a suitable child restraint.

Police forces say they lack the resources to effectively enforce the measures. In fact, numbers of traffic officers have fallen sharply in the past decade[3] , while the volume of traffic has increased.

Brake is concerned that there remain exemptions in the law that expose children to risk, which the Government is failing to address. The exemptions allow children to legally travel without the full protection of an appropriate child restraint in some circumstances. Children aged under three do not have to use a child seat if one isn’t available in a taxi and children aged between three and 11 do not have to use a child seat if:

a child seat isn’t available in a taxi
a journey is short and in unexpected circumstances
two occupied child restraints prevent fitment of a third

Brake is also concerned that some parents may unwittingly be failing to protect their children, where child seats have been fitted incorrectly. A recent survey in Lancashire of more than 600 children found that most parents were trying to comply with the new legislation, but 61% of children were using incorrectly fitted restraints.

Brake is calling for the Government spending to ensure parents are aware of the importance of fitting car seats correctly. A recent Department for Transport report notes that: ‘Good progress has been made [on this issue] but there is still a lot more to do.’

Cathy Keeler, head of communications at Brake, says: “Most parents want to do the right thing, but some are clearly in need of advice on the right way to fit their child’s restraint. The Government needs to close the loopholes which still allow children to travel without a restraint and make sure that the law is enforced. It must be made crystal clear to parents that children travelling unrestrained are at huge risk of being killed or injured in a crash. They deserve to be protected.”