One in three children travel unprotected in cars as new school year starts
New research from mifold, the Grab-and-Go child restraint, has found that one in three children will travel unprotected in cars as a new school year commences.
At the start of a new school year, when lift sharing and car-pooling is common, the research by mifold also found that 38 per cent of parents believe other people break the law when driving their children, with nearly half (47 per cent) blaming friends.
Giving a lift to other people’s children also poses a problem for parents. One in three parents (36 per cent) have given someone else’s child a lift without using a suitable car seat and a third of parents (33 per cent) have not had enough room in their vehicle for a third child seat when they needed one.
The research with 2000 parents found that car seat safety is a struggle for many parents with over a third (35 per cent) of parents breaking the law by only using the car seat belt to strap in their child before they were 12 years of age or more than 135 centimetres tall and nearly one in three parents using a car seat designed for an older child or using a car seat belt instead of a suitable child restraint (33 per cent and 32 percent respectively).
Children kicking up a fuss accounted for nearly a quarter of parents (22 per cent) that allowed a child to travel unsecured or unprotected in their vehicle.
Father-of-four, Jon Sumroy, founder and CEO, mifold, invented the product when he realised that his children weren’t safely secured when car-pooling with other parents during the school run. He says: “So many parents rely on friends and family to help with child care and with getting their children to and from school, clubs and activities. Car seat safety is paramount in these situations. Parents are taking unnecessary risks with children’s safety when solutions are available. mifold is a compact and portable child restraint that can fit into a child’s school bag or the glove compartment so a child restraint is on hand for every child on every journey.”