Booster seat warning: North East children "at risk"
Our children could be at risk of death or being left severely disabled if they are not using the correct car seat.
Our children could be at risk of death or being left severely disabled if they are not using the correct car seat.
That is the warning from North East child safety experts who say even new legislation expected later this year do not go far enough to protect kids.
The current rules say all children travelling in a car must use the correct car seat until 12 years old or 135cm tall.
In December this year the rules will change and backless booster seats will only be approved for use for children taller than 125cm (4ft 1) and weighing more than 22kg.
Gary Watts owns WH Watt and Sons in Middlesbrough, he showed us the safest way to fit a car seat with back and sides securely.
Many child car seat experts agree that this type of booster seat or seat cushion as it is also known is unsuitable for young children.
Carole Hewison from Washington is one of them. She told us a small child isn't held as securely on a booster seat - which also offers no protection for the head and neck if your car is involved in a side-impact crash.
"With the backless ones, if the car was in a side impact collision there is no protection at all - the child is going to be critical. It is accidents like this that leave children permanently disabled.
"There are so many lives lost every single year because of an accident in the car. There are so many different sizes you HAVE to take advice. Head and neck injuries are the most common from cars.
"If you were to get hit by a car, the child would travel thirty or sixty times their own weight if they were not in the right seat so it really is important."