South Gloucestershire Council

Published: 12/09/2013

Between 8.30am and 4pm, police officers will stop vehicles carrying young people to allow our road safety team to check if child car seats are fitted correctly. We are offering these free checks to give reassurance to parents that their children are safe and secure when travelling by car.

Previous car seat safety checks carried out in South Gloucestershire have shown that almost two thirds are fitted incorrectly. A total of 96 child car seats were checked at a previous event in Thornbury and of those only 33 (including booster seats) were found to be fitted correctly. Many of the faults found related to seat belts or harnesses.

Young people travelling as passengers will also be measured to ensure they are the correct height to safely use seat belts. The legal requirement is 135cm unless they are sitting on a booster seat. At the checks in Thornbury, four young people were found to be under this limit with no booster seat available.

Road safety officer Pamela Williams said: “The car seat safety checks provide a great opportunity to find out from experts the right way to fit in-car child safety seats. We are not trying to catch people out, but provide reassurance to parents that their young ones are safe and secure when out on the road.”

Any parents, grandparents, childminders or carers who would like to have their car seat checked voluntarily are welcome to stop by Yate Fire Station, Station Road, Yate BS37 4AL between 8.30am and 4pm on Tuesday 17 September.