As an accredited child restraint technician, I know how important Car Seat Safety truly is, I have seen so many horrible examples of how people install their child restraints, thankfully someone(usually mum) sees sense and comes and get the car seat installation checked out by a professional child restraint technician.
Unfortunately this is just the tip of the iceberg and there are many many more carseats installed incorrectly by parents who want to save a few dollars, and do not take the opportunity to get the child restraint at the point of purchase and 30 minutes of their time. The risk is too great, not to get your child restraint fitted correctly
Safety Information
As an accredited child restraint technician I take you through the process to ensure the harness is secure, I will show you how to test to ensure the child restraint is secure enough and how to adjust the harness so that your child is comfortable and will not try to get out of the harness.
Safety Tip – Date of Manufacture
Did you know that all car-seats made for Australia have an easily identifiable date of manufacture, so you can check, if the Child restraint is over 10 years old. Car seats should never be older than 10 years as the plastics ages and becomes brittle as well the standard would have changed significantly since it was first manufactured
Safety Standards
In 2004 the Australian standards specified that age and weight for each seat so that when a child reached a certain age / weight then children could legally be move to the next seat type. In 2010 the standards changed to a height based system, so that there was no age or weight imposed on the child but height markers to ensure the child was of the minimum height for the seat type. On September 19 2014, the 2013 standard were approved which incorporated provision for a G type seat as well as approving ISOFIX for use in Australia.
Car seat types and Guidelines
| Age group | Type of Seat | Guidelines |
|---|---|---|
| Infants/Toddlers | A1 type Seat | Rear facing from birth to approximately 6 months of age |
| Infants/Toddlers | A2 type Seat | Rear facing from birth to approximately 12 months of age |
| Infants/Toddlers | A4 type Seat | Rear facing from birth to approximately 30 months of age, this was introduced in 2013 standards, currently there are no A4 type seats. |
| Infants/Toddlers | A/B type Seat | Rear facing from birth to approximately 12 months of age, and then forward facing to approximately 4 years of ages. |
| Toddlers/Pre-schoolers | B type Seat | Forward facing from 6 months to approximately 4 years of age |
| Toddlers/Pre-schoolers | G type Seat | Forward facing from 6 months to approximately 8 years of age, Introduced with the 2013 standard – eg infa Evolve and Britax Maxi Guard |
| Infants/Toddlers | E type Seat | Booster Seat from approximately 4 years of age to approximately 8 years of age |
| Infants/Toddlers | B/E type Seat | Forward facing and Booster Seat from approximately 6 months of age to approximately 8 years of age, eg Infa Secure Luxi |