There is currently a big push to get kids back into their booster seats over the age of 5. New Zealand carseat laws say its ok for children to use an adult seat belt and not have a booster from the age of 5, but there is plenty of information to say this is not safe.
To safely use an adult seat belt, a child needs to be taller than 148cm.
Ninety percent of children between six and eight (the age group with the highest number of injuries at Starship) should also still be in booster seats. As should 50% of nine and 10-year-olds and even a small percentage of 11 and 12-year-olds.
Researchers at Starship's Intensive Care Unit say they are seeing children suffer unnecessary injuries because they are not restrained properly. Some of these injuries are devastating head injuries, broken necks, broken spinal cords, ruptures spleens and livers. Injuries, they say could be cut by more than 60% if children stay in carseats past the legal requirement of their 5th birthday.
There are many people that are pushing for the law in New Zealand to be changed. States in Australia have already started to enforce a law to keep kids in their boosters until they are at least 7 years old.
The New Zealand Minister of Transport announced in March 2010 that the Ministry will make booster seats an action item in its new ten year road safety strategy, Safer Journeys. As stated in the strategy, the Minister’s aim is to increase the level of restraint use by achieving a correct use and fitting rate of 90% for child restraints, and make the use of booster seats the norm for children aged 5 to 10.
New Zealand has one of the highest child road fatality rates in the OECD, and part of this is due to the lack or incorrect use of child car restraints, and current limitations on the mandatory use of restraints beyond the age of 5.
At Wobble sell a range of Booster seats and have qualified Safe2Go technicians to ensure we have staff trained to help you get the right product.
We stock the Maxi Cosi and SafeNSound brands which include the following boosters -
Maxi Cosi Rodi XR
Safe N Sound Hi Liner
Safe N Sound Evolution
Safe N Sound Nova
To safely use an adult seat belt, a child needs to be taller than 148cm.
Ninety percent of children between six and eight (the age group with the highest number of injuries at Starship) should also still be in booster seats. As should 50% of nine and 10-year-olds and even a small percentage of 11 and 12-year-olds.
Researchers at Starship's Intensive Care Unit say they are seeing children suffer unnecessary injuries because they are not restrained properly. Some of these injuries are devastating head injuries, broken necks, broken spinal cords, ruptures spleens and livers. Injuries, they say could be cut by more than 60% if children stay in carseats past the legal requirement of their 5th birthday.
There are many people that are pushing for the law in New Zealand to be changed. States in Australia have already started to enforce a law to keep kids in their boosters until they are at least 7 years old.
The New Zealand Minister of Transport announced in March 2010 that the Ministry will make booster seats an action item in its new ten year road safety strategy, Safer Journeys. As stated in the strategy, the Minister’s aim is to increase the level of restraint use by achieving a correct use and fitting rate of 90% for child restraints, and make the use of booster seats the norm for children aged 5 to 10.
New Zealand has one of the highest child road fatality rates in the OECD, and part of this is due to the lack or incorrect use of child car restraints, and current limitations on the mandatory use of restraints beyond the age of 5.
At Wobble sell a range of Booster seats and have qualified Safe2Go technicians to ensure we have staff trained to help you get the right product.
We stock the Maxi Cosi and SafeNSound brands which include the following boosters -
Maxi Cosi Rodi XR
Safe N Sound Hi Liner
Safe N Sound Evolution
Safe N Sound Nova
and the following convertable booster seat -
You can also check out our previous blog on buying the right carseat by clicking here.
2 comments:
And even better to keep them in rear facing carseats if possible until 4 years of age!
If possible, they should be kept rear facing until they are 1 year old. Many people think that the child is big enough but its development not size that dictates if the neck is ready to handle the force of an accident while front facing.
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