Child restraints are very effective at protecting young occupants in severe motor vehicle crashes. The protection provided by these devices can be reduced, however, if they are not correctly installed in the vehicle or if the child is not correctly strapped into the restraint. In order to determine the quality of installation of child restraints the Roads and Traffic Authority commissioned two types of survey: firstly a car park survey, where a technically qualified person observes, through the window, child restraints fitted to vehicles parked in shopping centre car parks and, secondly, an interview/observation survey where people attending family restaurants or child care centres are asked a series of questions about child restraints and a technically qualified person inspects the child restraint and takes measurements related to the quality of installation. Carpark surveys were carried out at a total 18 locations, including 6 locations outside the Sydney metropolitan area. A total of 1822 child restraints were observed. In a substantial number of cases of child seats and infant capsules the quality of installation could not be determined, usually due to the presence of dark window tinting. Of the 1,177 cases where installation quality could be determined 35% (+/-9%) of infant capsules were found to be incorrectly installed. Corresponding values were 13% (+/-3%) for convertible child seats (which can be used as a rearward facing infant restraints or forward facing child seat) and 27% (+/-4%) for child seats. Child harnesses and booster seats had relatively few installation problems, except for 5 cases where a booster seat was used in conjunction with a lap-only seat belt - this is a highly undesirable combination. The interview/observation survey was a pilot study. A total of 149 interviews were conducted at 12 sites in 10 towns, including 5 towns outside the Sydney metropolitan area. Ten sites were at McDonalds Family Restaurants and two sites were at Day Care Centres. Overall 88% of those approached agreed to both the interview and the in-vehicle inspection of child restraints. Installation quality was determined for a total of 162 child restraints. Of these poor installations were found in 27% of the 11 infant capsules, 27% of the 56 convertibles and 30% of the 91 child seats. Subject to caution about the small sample sizes, installation quality was more likely to be poor if the carer was aged 45 or more (10 out of 13 cases, compared with 23 out of 97 cases for carers aged 25 to 34). Restraints installed by Restraint Fitting Stations were more likely to be good and had the lowest proportion of poor installations (16% of 40 restraints). Technically the interview surveys were considered to be successful but they were found to be relatively resource intensive. Future surveys should endeavour to observe the manner in which the child is placed into the restraint. (A)
Samenvatting