Bid to extend use of car booster seats | Canterbury News | Local News in Canterbury

Helena Haye straps daughter Sammie Young, 7, into her booster seat every time they get into the car and says other parents should do the same.

The Avonside mother backs a bid by child injury prevention service Safekids to get the Government to extend the use of car booster seats up to the age of about 11.

Under existing laws, any child under five in the car must be held by a properly fitted child restraint of the right size - a booster seat, car seat or baby capsule, depending on the child's age.

However, children over five are not legally required to be in a child restraint in the car.

Miss Haye said this needed to change.

"It's safer for them (to be in a booster seat) because if they're in an accident they don't fly out of it," she said.

Safekids cited a US study, published in the journal Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, in a bid to persuade the Government to make booster seats mandatory from the age of five until a child is 148cm tall, a height reached on average at the age of 11.

Ministry of Transport statistics show 118 children aged five to 10 were injured in car crashes in Christchurch in the last 10 years.

Children strapped into the right kind of car restraint were nearly 30% less likely to die in a car crash than if they are held only by a seatbelt, according to the study.

It said adult seatbelts were not safe for children because they usually sat over the neck and stomach.

If the child put an arm over the belt to hold it lower, the body could fold in half in a crash, injuring the spinal cord and internal organs.

"Children also receive head injuries because they are more likely to move about within the car on impact," it said.

Miss Haye said Sammie would continue to use a booster seat until she was taller than 1m.

"Being small I think she's better in that - the police have said that and my doctor said that."

Plunket Canterbury car seat rental scheme manager Rosey Bristow supported a change in regulations, but said it should be based on size, not age, because of the variance between children.

"It definitely should be height and weight," she said.

Parent education about how to fit belts correctly was also important, said Mrs Bristow.

The Ministry of Transport is looking to improve the rate of correct use of child restraints by 2020.

This would mean bringing New Zealand's laws in line with international best practice by requiring children up to the age of 10 or 148cm in height (whichever came first) to use booster seats, a spokesman said.