A consumer group has slammed ‘killer’ child car seats being listed for sale online three years after they failed a safety test.
Which? discovered the fabric car seats, which offer no protection, are available to purchase on eBay for as little as £8.99.
Some sellers claim they can be used to ‘protect your baby when driving’, however, a Surrey Trading Standards investigation showed one seat disintegrating during a 30mph crash test in 2014.
Which? discovered fabric car seats, which offer no protection, are available for purchase on eBay for as little as £8.99
Some sellers claim they can be used to ‘protect your baby when driving’, however, a Surrey Trading Standards investigation showed one seat disintegrating during a 30mph crash test in 2014. File photo shows a baby being strapped into a proper seat
A test dummy, which represented a three-year-old child, was thrown through the windscreen after straps failed to hold it in place.
Most of the car seats are being sold in China or Taiwan and are available to be shipped to the UK for free.
Most of the car seats are being sold in China or Taiwan and are available to be shipped to the UK for free
Trading Standards told the group they have contacted sellers and requested they are removed, however, several were still listed as for sale last night.
Which? car seats expert Lisa Galliers said: ‘You can see the shocking outcome of using one of these fabric seats in a crash in the Trading Standards video. We very much doubt they’d pass our crash tests.
‘The law on child car seats states that only EU-approved child car seats can be used in the UK. These have to have a clear orange approval label on to show they can be sold on the UK market.’
A spokesperson for eBay told Which?: ‘The safety of our customers is our number one priority and we work closely with trading standards to keep our marketplace safe. We have removed these items and will continue to monitor any listings.’
It comes after What Car? magazine, Leicestershire Police and training specialists Child Seat Safety discovered only one in seven children are both strapped in safely and placed in seats of the right size during an investigation earlier this year.
An alarming five per cent of seats were deemed to be completely unsafe – meaning parents are ‘significantly increasing the risk of death or serious injury to their children’. Half of these seats were removed on the spot during the research.
t comes after What Car? magazine, Leicestershire Police and training specialists Child Seat Safety discovered only one in seven children are both strapped in safely
Motorists judged to be using a seat that is not appropriate for the child’s height or weight also risk a £100 on-the-spot fine.
The most common fault exposed was the harness or seatbelt being too loose, twisted or incorrectly positioned.
They checked 85 seats in 51 cars and found only 36 per cent were fitted correctly.
This figure slumped lower still to just 15 per cent when the age, height and weight of the child were compared with the size of the car seat.