Today – The importance of rear facing carseats
I have never had rear facing car seats only the very baby one faced backwards.
The safety aspects of rear facing car seats are quite astounding.
Car seats like the SIRONA (www.cybex-online.com ) reduce the risk of injury in a head-on collision by more than 80% when compared to a conventional forward-facing seat with harness system.
80% is huge isn’t it?
I did wonder when I first heard about these seats whether it about selling more expensive car seats but the facts are irrefutable.
The importance of rear facing carseats
In most countries car accidents are the main cause of death among children over the age of one. A quarter of young children in forward-facing car seats suffer serious or fatal injuries in head-on collisions – as the majority of crashes result in a child’s head being flung forward, causing everything from whiplash injuries to a fatal stretching of the spinal cord.
The rear-facing SIRONA distributes the force of an impact evenly over a large area – helping to protect a child’s internal organs as well as their particularly vulnerable neck, shoulders and head.
The seat can be used for children up to 18kg (or approximately 4 years) and fit any car.
The results of independent tests on the improved safety provided by rear-facing car seats have been so impacting that organisations such as Which?s have now called for children to be put into rear-facing seats for as long as possible.
At the moment it is the exception for a child to be in one of these car seats but parent facing buggies used to be unusual too. I don’t think you can ignore these safety finds and I am sure this will become the norm.
What do you think?
These rear facing carseats range from £185 – £400 so they aren’t a cheap option but to me they seem a very safe option. If you have to make a choice it is far more important to be safe than to spend much money on a trendy pram?
I hope you have found my post on The importance of rear facing carseats to be useful. You might also like my post on sun safety tips for little ones
