New European research - children should sit rear facing in the car up till four years of age

The picture to the left shows a five year old boy rear facing in a Britax Multitech(the seat is RF up till 55 lbs) in the back of a VW Passat.

A small cut from the report:

Child safety in cars: A wide gulf has developed between technology and legislation

Children up to four years of age would be better protected in cars if they traveled rearward-facing in a suitable child restraint, rather than forward-facing as is the usual practice in most of Europe. Suitable seats are widely used in the Nordic countries, but are not readily available in the rest of Europe. The law and the supply of seats, together with the information for parents, are in urgent need of revision. These are the conclusions of a study commissioned by ANEC looking at the lessons to be learned from accidents in the UK, US and
Sweden

A small quote from section: 5 - Findings based on the UK fatal Accidents Data

5.1 Forward Facing child seats

....In six of the eight accidents the research team judged that the child would have survived had they been seated in a suitable rearward facing car seat. The agees of these children ranged from five and three-quarter months to just under four years old. In the remaining two cases the protection offered by a rearward facing seat would have been compromised by additional loading from luggage in the boot area and gross roof intrusion into the seating position. The children in these accidents were aged seven months and one and a half years old.

The organization wants to make rear-facing car seats available in all of Europe and says that children should stay rear-facing up till four years.

The picture to the left shows a four year old girl(110 cm & 18 kg) rear facing in a Britax Two Way Elite and a three year old boy(93 cm & 13 kg) rear facing in a Akta Graco Duologic seat. They sit in the back of a VW Golf st.

About ANEC:

ANEC, the European Association for the Co-ordination of Consumer Representation in Standardization (known informally as 'the European consumer voice in standardization'), is an organization promoting and defending consumer interests in the processes of standardization and certification and in legislation related to standardization and certification.

ANEC provides technical expertise and advice drawn from a network of more than 200 consumer representatives across Europe. The organization's experts contribute directly to the work of more than 80 technical committees and working groups of the European Standards Organizations, CEN, CENELEC and ETSI.

Source: Wikipedia



For those of you who wants to learn more, look at real crash test data and more:


The main findings from the ANEC study
The enitre study