Your car is valuable. It’s probably the biggest financial investment in your life, after your home.

But what’s more valuable is what’s inside your car (we’re talking about the people, not the leather seats). As smash repairers, we’ve seen the results of accidents on vehicles, drivers and passengers and we know that safety is the most important feature of any car!

And if you have children, there’s a lot more to consider than just seatbelts. Child car restraints are one of the most debated and contentious safety measures for families, and with good reason. Properly installed child restraints have been proven effective in preventing injuries to children in the event of a crash – but what does ‘properly installed’ mean? Are there different restraints for different types of cars? Does the age of the child matter or are size and weight more important? Should the restraint be rearward-facing or forward-facing? Does it matter which seat it’s on?

Thankfully there is help at hand! A number of organisations in the automotive industry, including the RAC, the NRMA, NTA, TAC and RTAC have come together to provide a guide for choosing the right safety restraint for your child. It explains the different types of restraints and can help you understand the government’s Child Car Restraint Regulations, which came into effect in 2010.

The basics are straightforward and can be found at http://rac.com.au/Advocacy/Child-car-restraints.aspx. To start, you should check your car. Some older cars do not have the anchor points required for child restraints, or they’re not suited to positioning the restraint safely. Others, particularly those used for carrying groups of children, have side-facing seats which can’t accommodate child safety restraints. The new laws are strict, and do not allow children under four to travel in a vehicle which can’t be properly fitted with safety restraints, though special allowances are made for children 4-7 years in these cases.

Next, always make sure you’re buying a restraint that meets Australian Standard AS 1754 – it’s a legal requirement. You should also make sure that it will fit in your car in the rearward-facing position without squashing the people in the front seats into the dashboard! And it should be practical – if you’re going to be moving it a lot, it should be light and easy to re-install properly, every time.

In terms of installation:

Children up to six months old:

• Must be in a rearward-facing restraint with built-in five-point safety harness.
• Are not permitted in the front seat of vehicles with two or more rows of seats.

Children from six months to four years old:

• Must be in a rear or forward-facing restraint with a built-in five-point harness.
• Are not permitted in the front seat of vehicles with two or more rows of seats.

Children from four to seven years old:

• Must be in a forward-facing restraint with a built-in safety harness or a booster seat with a lap sash seatbelt (this means a standard fitted seatbelt, not a lap-only belt) or a child safety harness.
• If sitting in the front seat must be placed in an approved child restraint or booster seat.
• Are not permitted in the front seat unless all rear seats are occupied by children less than seven years old.

The guide also takes into account the fact that every child and every car is different. Recommendations for different types of restraints are based on height as well as age, so you can always be sure that you’re installing the right safety restraint for your child.

We recommend that you get as much information as possible before buying a child safety restraint. The following links will give you any other information you need about choosing and positioning a restraint, and about the new laws around the safety of children in cars:

The Office of Road Safety
http://www.ors.wa.gov.au/Documents/childcarrestraints-faq-newrules.aspx

RoadWise
www.childcarrestraints.com.au

Kidsafe WA
www.kidsafewa.com.au

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