North West parents still confused by car seat laws
More parents have been fined for getting it wrong here than anywhere else in the country.
A new report has revealed parents in the North West are still baffled by new car seat laws.
More than 2,000 child seat belt offences were recorded here over the last three years - far higher than anywhere else in England and Wales.
Confused.com says parents have been fined £161 on average for driving with a child who was not in a car seat or wearing a seat belt - one year after the new rules were announced.
The law, which came into force in February 2017, extends the use of booster seats with backs to taller and heavier children but, nationally almost 20% of parents with children under 12 have admitted they never or rarely use a car seat for their kids.
Under the new rules, backless booster seats are deemed unsuitable for children shorter than 125cm and weighing less than 22kg – this is the average height and weight of children between six and eight years old. Whereas before backless booster seats were only unsuitable for children weighing less than 15kg.
The current law states children must use the correct car seat for their height, age and weight until they are 12 years old or 135cm tall, whichever they reach first.
Even more worryingly, more than 40% of those who've been in an accident whilst their child was in the vehicle admit their kids were either not in a car seat or wearing a seatbelt at the time.
Motoring Editor Amanda Stretton told us: "The advice is very clear - a child should be in the approptriate car seat until they are either 12 years old or 135cm tall; whichever comes first.
"However, if you can, you should really keep your child in a fully backed car seat until they are well over seven years old."
Amanda says it's worrying that the number of road traffic officers is on the decline to catch parents breaking child seat laws: "When you're looking at things like seat belt offences - these really do need police officers on the ground because traffic cameras aren't going to catch you.
"It really is rather concerning that we are seeing such a decline in police numbers because - who else is going to enforce this?
"Do we need to have some sort of catastrophic accident where we have loss of life because of the misuse of child car seats before anything actually gets done?"