Road Safety Scotland launches major new campaign in response to potentially fatal child seat fitting errors

Road Safety Scotland, in partnership with leading child seat specialist, Good Egg Safety, has launched a major new campaign over the summer to warn parents about potentially fatal common errors made in fitting child car seats.

Images of incorrectly- fitted child seats will be released via social media and backed up by nine short videos produced in partnership with the Arnold Clark Group, to graphically demonstrate why the child seats, or the children seated within them, are unsafe.

Good Egg has already issued an urgent safety alert on social media for parents in relation to incorrect routing of seatbelts through child seats, which is being found in 1 in 10 of their child seat checks across Scotland and the rest of the UK.

Jan James, Good Egg Safety CEO said: 'these routing errors could mean the difference between life or death for a baby or child if they were involved in a collision, and yet, they are very simple to fix.We strongly urge parents, grandparents and all who carry children in a car, to take just two minutes to view our video. This shows why it's dangerous and how easy it is to correct it and make the seat safer."

This coincides with a new programme of 50 free checking events across Scotland where parents, grandparents and carers can go for further reassurance. Previous checks in Scotland have shown that, on average, 54% of child car seats are incorrectly-fitted or incompatible with the child or the vehicle.

All the new videos are set to go online as the annual Good Egg in-car child safety campaign is launched; funded by Road Safety Scotland and supported by The Arnold Clark Group, Britax Romer and Police Scotland.

Michael McDonnell, Director of Road Safety Scotland, said: "Many parents would be horrified to learn their child car seats are not fitted properly and, therefore, not providing the protection their children need.This campaign seeks to highlight that, not only by raising awareness of the issue and providing advice and guidance, but it also has a very practical element in that people can check the website, find the nearest car seat clinic and get the child-seat-car combination checked by an expert. It only takes a few minutes yet could save a child's life."

Superintendent Louise Blakelock of Police Scotland said, "It is absolutely essential that child safety seats are properly fitted, as the consequences of them not being so can be fatal for a young child, even in a relatively slow speed collision.We continue to work with partners to highlight the dangers and encourage parents and carers to ensure their precious passengers are properly and safely secured."

George Baggley of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service stated: "The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service would urge anyone transporting children to go along to a Good Egg car seat checking event. Once there, you can have expert advice and the reassurance that your child is safely and securely seated in the car."

Eddie Hawthorne, Chief Executive & Group Managing Director of Arnold Clark, said: "It's vital that parents and carers know how to keep their little one's safe when travelling by car and we are very proud to support Good Egg and help raise awareness of potentially dangerous issues"