Car safety beyond the seat

The seat is the start, not the finish

Most parents put a lot of time into choosing a car seat, and rightly so, because a well chosen and correctly fitted seat is the single most important measure in the car. In practice, though, things rarely go wrong with the seat itself and far more often with everything around it. A coat between child and harness, a bag on the parcel shelf, an older sibling running the belt under their arm: these are the things that quietly hollow out the protection. They do not stand out, because the car drives exactly as it always did and the seat looks fine. This article is therefore deliberately not about which brand to buy, but about the habits around the seat. Together they cost at most thirty seconds per journey and they decide whether the seat really does what the manufacturer promises in a crash. Run through them deliberately for a few weeks and after that you will do them without thinking.

Bulky coats do not belong in the seat

A winter coat under the harness is the best known and at the same time the most stubborn mistake in the car. The problem is that the padding of a coat compresses at the moment of impact, which suddenly creates slack between the child and the harness you thought you had pulled tight. Your child can then be thrown forward or, in the worst case, come partly out of the harness, even though the straps looked perfectly neat beforehand. This applies to padded winter coats, to thick fleece jackets and also to the popular mid-season jacket with a lot of filling. The practical answer is simple: take the coat off, strap your child in, and then lay the coat over the harness back to front, or use a blanket. For babies there are also footmuffs that pass under the child and leave the harness clear; always check that the manufacturer explicitly approves them for use in the seat. Warm the car up for a few minutes rather than strapping your child in wrapped up thickly.

The pinch test: how tight is tight enough

A belt or harness that sits too loose is the second silent mistake, and unlike a bulky coat you can often see something here, you just do not know where the limit lies. The standard check is the pinch test: try to pinch a fold in the harness strap at the collarbone. If you can, the harness is too loose and needs tightening. If it is right, your fingers slide over the strap without picking up any webbing. Also check that the chest clip or the buckle sits at armpit height and not on the tummy, because a clip that sits too low lets the shoulder straps slide outwards. Check as well that on a rearward facing seat the shoulder straps come out of the slots at or just below shoulder height, and on a forward facing seat at or just above shoulder height. Adjust that height as your child grows, because the setting quietly falls behind reality.

The thirty second check

• •Coat off: no thick padding between your child and the harness
• •Pinch test at the collarbone: no fold of webbing to grab
• •Chest clip or buckle at armpit height, not on the tummy
• •Shoulder straps in the slot height that matches your child
• •Nothing hard loose in the car: bags, bottles and toys stowed away
• •Everyone belted in, including the adults in the back

Loose objects become projectiles

Anything lying loose in the car travels at the speed you were driving when you crash. A laptop bag on the back seat, a thermos flask in the door or a hard toy on the parcel shelf becomes an object that can hit a child in the face, and the back is exactly where those things end up. The parcel shelf is the worst storage place there is, because nothing holds the items back. Stow heavy and hard objects in the boot instead, preferably against the back of the rear seats rather than loose on top of everything else. In the car, hand over soft toys only, so fabric rather than wood, plastic or metal. Watch out for the things you put down temporarily as well: an umbrella as you get in, shopping you set beside your child for a moment, a visitor's bag. Make it a habit to look around once before setting off and move anything hard to the back.

Never leave a child alone, not even briefly

Leaving a child alone in the car is a bad idea even in mild weather, because the temperature inside a closed car rises much faster than people expect and a baby overheats before you are back. A window left ajar changes little, and shade is no guarantee, because the sun moves while you are inside. On top of that your child cannot free itself, the car can lock by accident, and a child that wakes up alone can panic. So take your child with you, including to pay at the pump or to pick up a parcel quickly. Fixed routines help: put your phone or your bag in the back next to the seat, so you never get out without looking behind you. If a child is red, clammy or drowsy after a warm journey, cries a lot or goes unusually quiet, move them to a cool place, offer small sips of water and call your GP, the out-of-hours GP service or 112 if in doubt.

Rearward facing, in the back, and the airbag

The safest place for a child is in the back, and rearward facing for as long as possible. Travelling rearward facing spreads the forces of a frontal impact across the whole back and head instead of the neck, and that difference is large in young children because their head is relatively heavy and their neck still weak. The rule of thumb is that you only turn the seat around when your child is genuinely too tall for it, not as soon as it reaches the minimum age; many seats allow rearward facing use well into the toddler years. Never put a rearward facing seat in the front in a position with an active airbag, because a deploying airbag then strikes the back of the seat exactly where the head rests. If it has to go in the front, switch the passenger airbag off and slide the seat as far back as it goes. In a borrowed or hired car, always check yourself that the airbag really is off rather than relying on what someone tells you.

Getting in and out: the kerb side and the child lock

The moment around the car is riskier than the journey itself, because your child is standing among moving traffic while your hands are full. Always let children get in and out on the kerb side rather than the road side, even when that means walking around the car. Switch on the child lock on both rear doors as soon as your child can work a handle, because a door opening while you drive is a real risk. Lock the rear window controls too, so a child cannot put a hand or head outside. Teach your child to wait until you open the door and, once out, to walk straight to the pavement and stay there. Always look behind and around the car before reversing off the drive, because young children are exactly small enough to disappear into the blind spot.

When someone else drives your child

The rules that are second nature to you do not automatically apply in the car of grandparents, the babysitter or a friend. So agree explicitly which seat will be used and ask the other person to show you once how they fit it and strap the child in, rather than asking whether they can manage. If in doubt, lend out your own seat or buy a second one for the car your child regularly travels in. With an Isofix fitting, check that both indicators are green and that the support leg or top tether has actually been used, because that last step is the one most often skipped. Take your own seat in a taxi where you can, because the legal exemption for taxis does not mean it is safe. Discuss the small things as well: no bulky coat, nothing hard loose on the parcel shelf, and everyone belted in.

Maintenance, expiry and after a collision

A car seat is not a product that lasts forever, and you cannot see it from the outside. Plastic ages through uv light and through the temperature swings inside a car, which makes the shell absorb less energy; manufacturers therefore state an expiry period, usually somewhere between six and ten years after the production date. Find that date on the sticker underneath the shell and write it down, so you do not have to search for it later. Replace a seat after a collision that was more than a light knock, even if you can see nothing, because the damage is in the material rather than the shape. For the same reason, be careful with second-hand seats with no known history and no instructions. Wash the cover according to the instructions and use no aggressive products on the harness webbing, because they attack the fibres. Finally, check now and then that the seat is still firmly installed, because a fitting can slowly work loose with daily use.