car seat laws for Austria

[bestjob-mommy]

I have a friend who is traveling to Austria with her 6yr old. I googled around the web and saw that they have child restraint laws for under 12yrs. Here are the questions...

Can they take a US booster seat with them? or do they buy one there, or get one from the rental car place?

Any info would be wonderful! Thanks!

[Aurinia]

i think if you're travelling / visiting you can legally take your own car seat even if it isnt legeal to use it constantly / import it... (not that we always stick to that :whistle:)
if she wants to rent one the best place to go is OAMTC ( http://www.oeamtc.at/netautor/pages/resshp/anwendg/1066204.html )
of course it would probably be easier for them to just hire one or buy one rather than lugging a booster seat ruond with them.

[Adventuredad]

It's illegal to use a non-ECE R44 seat in Europe regardless if it's for a day or a year. I don't think this is a good law since parents who bring car seats often think more about car seat safety.

I would not hesitate to use a US seat in Europe, and vice versa, if it meant a safety benefit. In this case I think it's great to bring a booster seat even though it's technically illegal. You can rent but it's always a lottery.

European boosters are not any better than US boosters, many look very similar.

[ketchupqueen]

I think even if there were a crash, and an investigation, as long as she was correctly using ANY booster they wouldn't make an issue out of it, seeing as they are from the U.S. I doubt they'd do more than glance at it at a traffic stop to make sure she's using something. I don't think it would get them in trouble.