South Gloucestershire Council

Published: 24/06/2013

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. Previous car seat safety checks carried out in South Gloucestershire have shown that more than half are fitted incorrectly so we are offering these free checks to give reassurance to parents that their children are safe and secure when travelling by car.

Any parents, grandparents, childminders or carers who would like to have their car seat checked voluntarily are welcome to stop by Kingswood Fire Station on Tenniscourt Road, Kingswood BS15 4LB between 8.30am and 4pm on Wednesday 26 June.

Chief Inspector John Holt of Avon and Somerset’s Roads Policing Unit said: “Safety checks such as these offer the perfect opportunity to educate drivers about the importance of keeping themselves and their passengers safe. We are committed to reducing the number of people, young and old who are killed or seriously injured whilst travelling on our roads.”

Road safety officer Pamela Williams said: “We checked a total of 114 child car seats at a previous event in Yate and only 30 of those were found to be fitted correctly. Many of the major faults found were due to seat belts requiring re-routing, and many of the minor faults included harnesses requiring adjustment and headrests that needed to be removed.”

The council’s road safety team will be holding similar events around South Gloucestershire in July and August.