A campaign to make safety seats in cars compulsory for all children has been sparked after worrying statistics reveal the vast majority of children's seats are incorrectly fitted. Women's Editor Arifa Akbar reports

THOUSANDS of child car passengers, from babies to teenagers, are killed or injured on the road because they are not properly strapped in, according to new research.

Mother & Baby Magazine, which brought the findings to light, claims the law regarding children travelling in cars is so inadequate parents can allow their babies and children to bounce around unrestrained and unprotected on the back seat of cars and there is nothing the police can do about it.

The campaign is calling for the Government to legislate that all children up to the age of 11 be properly restrained in a vehicle.

After the disturbing survey found eight out of ten child car seats were incorrectly fitted, the watchwords from North-East Trading Standards chiefs are "read the instructions before you fit your seat".

The research also showed some parents allowed children to travel in grandparents', childminders' and friends' cars without a car seat.

And an independent study by Which? magazine on child car seats showed that, while adults are being increasingly well protected in cars, child safety is left behind.

The crash test found the quality of seats to be at fault. In a severe crash, most seats would fail to prevent chest and neck injuries as well as potentially-fatal head injuries, according to Which? But despite the shortcomings, Which? stressed any properly-fitted child seat would offer far better protection than not using one at all.

While Middlesbrough Council's Trading Standards group leader, John Wells, backs the call for more parental awareness, he is not critical of the kind of seats available but of parents' lack of expertise in fitting them. He says parents do not always read fitting instructions.

When his department carried out a check of baby seats at four locations in Middlesbrough a few years ago, they found most of the seats were fitted incorrectly or that the wrong seat was being used for the child.

Mr Wells says parents do not always read the fitting instruction leaflet with their newly-acquired baby seats, which leaves their child at risk.

"If someone has time to go and buy a safety seat, they ought to find the time to read an instruction leaflet and make sure it is correctly fitted or they are defeating the object," says Mr Wells, an expert in car seat belt safety.

"A seat that is not properly fitted lulls a parent into a false sense of security. I'm not saying a seat is totally accident proof and we know that children can be like little escapologists, but making seats compulsory can only be a safer measure."

He also backs the call for second-hand child car seats to be crushed as he says we do not know what damage the seat has suffered in a previous accident and neither are the instruction pamphlets always guaranteed in a second-hand sale.

He says parents ought to take a child's weight into account rather than their age when choosing a seat. And they should not let the term "baby seat" hasten them to put their child in a less protected seat.

"I have only just put my nine-year-old daughter in a booster seat while most of her peers were in them a couple of years ago," he says. "But, as I see it, I'd rather have a safe child than one that seems grown up because he or she is out of a baby seat."

Experts claim a collision at just 5mph can kill an unrestrained child and 90 per cent of child fatalities in cars could be avoided if children were properly strapped in.

Tragically, every year, 16,000 children are injured and 70 children are killed in car accidents and there is a 75 per cent chance of a child being injured or killed in a 30mph crash.

Dani Zur, editor of Mother & Baby Magazine, says the law in the UK for protecting children travelling in cars is woefully inadequate. As it stands, it is perfectly legal for a baby, toddler or older child to rattle around on the back seat of a car with absolutely no seat belt restraint of any kind.

She says it's totally ludicrous that there is no legislation to protect children.

Other statistics from the survey make equally disturbing reading. Twenty-two per cent of parents admit they allow their baby or young child to travel in someone else's car without a car seat - often a grandparent's car - a third admit they've fastened a seat belt around two small children and 32 per cent admit they have had a seat belt around themselves and a small child.

One in three parents also mistakenly think it is better for a child to sit on an adult's lap than travel unrestrained.