Newsletter Sneak Peak

For years people have been placing their first born child behind the passenger seat and I'm here to change your thinking on that.
In a 5 seater vehicle the safest place for a child in a rear facing or convertible child restraint is centre back. This position provides the most protection from impact to any part of the vehicle and also is able to use the lap belt if your vehicle has one. Centre back is the safest position for any child so long as thechild isn't using a lap belt only in the case of a booster aged child.

Lap belts offer little protection to anyone and can cause severe internal injuries if used on their own, Seat-belt injuries as medical professionals refer to them are caused when there is a frontal or frontal offset collision and the upper body is thrown forward causing the lap belt to ride up onto the soft abdomen and crush internal organs. Use of a lap belt only on a child can sometimes cause cause them to submarine in the seat belt which means they slide under it and are thrown our of the car. This was the case with a child who died over Easter weekend this year in New Zealand.

So what do you do if you have more than one child or you cant get a good car seat install in the centre.
The second safest place for a child is behind the driver, but you have always been told to put them behind the passenger i hear you say. According to theNew Zealand specific crash data only 2.8% of fatal injuries are distributed to the driver side of the vehicle where as 61% are to the passenger side. Thereason people recommend you put your child on the passenger side has to do with when the vehicle is stationary and you are removing them, as you would be taking your child out on the side walk side of the car rather than out in the line of traffic. So how can we safely remove a child from the vehicle if they are on the drivers side? I have a 3.5yr old in this position and a 18mth old in the centre (both still in rear-facing car seats) and when needing to get my children out of the car in the line of traffic i just walk around to the passenger side and reach into the car, undoing the harnesses and removing both children from the passenger side.

I have control of how my child is removed from the vehicle but i have no control over the 61% of fatal collisions that happen to the passenger side of thevehicle.
So what if you have 3 children, my rule is the most vulnerable child goes in the safest spot then i move out from there. You can also take into account what type of child restraint they are in in order to keep all children as safe as possible.

If you have a people mover with 7 or more seats then i recommend to use up the back seats before putting a child directly behind the passenger as out ofthe 61% only 3.6% of fatal injuries happen to the rear passenger corner.