Vent Australian car safety

Hi, I'm new here

My name is Jodie and I live in Australia.
I have no kids of my own, but have a 6 month old godson and babysit him and other kids regularly.
Since I got my licence 2.5 years ago and needed to make an investment in a car seat for babysitting, I have done plenty of research about car seat safety.
After finding out about the benefits of RF, and doing hours of research about seats in countries such as Sweden, I am APPALLED at the standards in Australia.
I'm not sure if anyone else has bought this up, but here are the basics.
The law was changed to this in November 2009.

~ Infants 6 months an under must be restrained in a RF Australian-approved restraint.
~ Children 6 months to 4 years must be restrained in a FF Australian-approved restraint.
~ Children 4 to 7 years must be resrained in a booster with a lap sash seat belt or harness.

Australian Standards like to think they are the best, but in this case they are NOT. The "safest" car seat available for purchase in Australia is the "Safe N Sound Premier AHR Air Cushion".
Yes it may be super safe, but as we all know by now RF is THE SAFEST!!!
And this seat only goes up to 12kg RF, the same as all Australian seats.
Some of the cheaper ones only go up to 9kg RF!!!!

Noone will ship Swedish/UK/USA seats to Australia . I have tried numerous times. However, this week I have found a Britax Hi-Way for sale on eBay. It is brand new and is listed for $175AUD. I can't WAIT to get my hands on it!!!
I know it is illegal in Australia to have a seat with no Aust-Standards sticker on it, but I honestly don't care. I'd rather have other people's kids be super safe in my car and risk a fine, than have them restrained inadequately and something happen.

I'm hoping that someone on these forums has more info about the Aust laws and can tell me if they will be improved in the future.

Thanks, Jodie

Good on you for doing so much research! The laws in Australia have been discussed on here in the past - this thread is one example... http://www.car-seat.org/showthread.php?p=1074457

There are also a couple of facebook groups relating to the laws in Australia http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/group.php?gid=199927073063&ref=ts & the Britax/Safe n Sound page has had recent discussion, both on the wall & in the discussion area, about why they don't allow rearfacing beyond 12kgs http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/safensound?ref=ts

One point I thought of though, is I know as a parent I have made a judgement call about my own children to use seats in NZ that I've bought from the US myself, but I'm not sure that I would use one of those seats for other peoples children without discussing it with them first. Australian standards seats are actually quite good seats for younger babies & I have used & wouldn't hesitate to use one again for a rearfacing baby who is still within the limits but it would be nice if people who are able to make changes listen to what the rest of the world has to say & what a growing number of parents are wanting.

Thankyou for that! I have spoken to the 3 mums whose kids will be in the Britax seat:One is completely for it and understands everything, she's an ERF convert of mine her kids are tiny, her 2yr 4mth old is only 11kg so still RFs in his Safe N Sound seat! Most kids hit 12kg by 12 months (don't know lbs, sorry!).The next knows the benefits of RF but doesn't get why it should be past a year of age, however she's happy for my godson to ride in it till he outgrows it.The third does not understand the RF concept at all and restrains her kids terribly, but is happy for me to have them in my car 'if it's safe', which it will be I will definately have a read of that thread and check out those facebook groups. I'll post pics of my Britax Hi Way when it arrives!

Australia like tho think of their law being a step forward while car seat safety people think of it as two steps backwards. All other countries are trying to RF kids longer while Australia is going to other way

Ask Lenas31 on this board, she hangs out at the Aussie forums and parents are convinced FF at 6 months is great....

As a side note, we ship lots of Swedish seats to Australia to frustrated parents who want top RF longer than the ultra low maximum limit of 12 kg (26 lbs).

I would consider it very unlikely laws to be changed since people in charge already are under the impression earlier FF is better.

Thanks I am signed up to carseat.se, I love that site! And glad to know I have found someone that will ship them.
I think one of the reasons parents are so desperate to FF is because of the stupid reverse tether system - it makes it near impossible to get a wriggling 6 month old in without losening the tether. So it's either a losely tethered RF seat, or FF for convenience waaaaay too early. Our seats are super safe, I know that, but RF is so much safer than a FF most high-tech seat with a 6 month old in it.

I think maybe NZ seats are okay to use in Australia, or is it the other way around? Check into it, if you haven't already.

Unfortunately you can only use Australian seats in Australia which carry the Aus/NZ joint standard.

NZ allows a few US seats (after a testing process) in & we also accept all ECE seats but those seats are not able to be used in Australia. We know how lucky we are in NZ to have the range of options we have.

Hi Jodie, oh yes, it's stunningly bad! Im in NZ, and when my DS hit 12 kg at 8 months, in a safe n sound meridian AHR, I was told by Plunket (our main baby health provider in NZ) to turn him FF. At that time there was no seat available in NZ that RF beyond 12kg.

You've obviously also seen that carseat.se will send 'the good stuff' to Aus. In addition, an outfit in NZ, (to which I have no affiliation) will send the Radian XTSL (which RF to 20kg) to Australia

http://www.bumbles.co.nz/products/Radian-XTSL-Car-Seat.html

Obviously any associated issues with using an 'illegal' seat in Aus are a matter for personal choice... but I know what mine would be.

We've certainly got it better in NZ than in Aus, but only for those "in the know" - in baby shops you'll still only find the 12kg RF, 18kg FF seats.

hiya,

Yes, I have been involved in some debates on Australian sites for the past 2-3 years.

Knowing what childrens´ bones are like and their muscle mass, head size and weight in accordance to the body I would ERF a child less than 4 any time and anywhere. Anybody trying to tell me FF is just as safe as RF are wasting their time and energy

There is one little hatch to buying the Hiway and any other ERF seat. Since there is no seat in Australia that RFs beyond 12 kg, an older child in RF position in the car could stand out as being in an illigal seat.

*waves to lenats*

The top tether is a corner stone in the Australian way of protecting children in traffic. While it is good for use with forwardfacing seats, it has drawbacks:

- It doesn´t provide the best protection for young children.
- It stops inovation to a great extent, and has done so for the past 20 years +

it is a well known fact that the swedes have the lowest fatality rate and also the lowest serious injury rate among children in traffic.

It is also a well known fact that rearfacing is best for everyone.

And most importantly, children´s anatomy is far from the same as that of an adult person. children are a lot more vunarable. therefore rearfacing is way more important for children than adults

Child restraints in Australia have improved over the past year. However, they are still behind the Scandinavian and American way, due to the fact that 6 months and 8 kg. are still the minimum FF requirements and the top recommendation is 12 kg only.

for one thing, the sidewings have been made deeper. They are app. 22 cm deep, which is a lot. But what good is that going to do. peole tend to hit the brakes when they discover the immidate danger ahead. fact is that in most cases side impacts are really frontal impacts, since both cars are going forward and most people hit the brakes hard prior to impact.

Tell me about it the laws over here make me cringe. I have my DS (2yr) RF in a Radian, I turned him back that way a few months ago, he has been FF since he was 1yr as I had no other option. My DD (4yr) has also been FF since 1 yr and I am just thankful that we have never had an accident. I am just in the middle of importing a Frontier for DD so I can keep her harnessed forn longer as she has reached the limits of her top of the range Safe-n-Sound seat for FF harnessing at just nearly 20kg. I very often see tiny little babies FF and it makes me sick.

Lenats, are you from Australia? I did buy the Hi Way, and have had a 4 year old sit in it. I'm happy to pay the fine if I did get caught. To me, the safety of the kids I'm babysitting is more important than a little bit of money.

Bella, I see tiny babies FF too and I just want to open the door and turn them back around! Because these babies are so small it's obvious they haven't reached the limits of the seat.

I get so angry at the australian carseat laws yes they have improved I think before the law changes children over 12 months didnt even have to be in a carseat!! ie they could just use the adult seat belt!!!

I too am thankful I live in NZ where we have the option of carseats that rearface up to 25kgs and harness FF to 36kgs!!

I have my almost 3 year old rear facing in a radian xtsl and my 10 month old rear facing in a cosco scenera. my aim is to have them both rearfacing till they are at least 4 years of age.

and I read that Sweden has had 5 children since 1960 die in car crashes rearfacing compared to something like 80 children in ausssie each year!!! and after watching crash test videos of forward facing and rear facing crashes was enough to convince me to keep my children rear facing.

one argument that some parents use is that their child had good head control so is fine to turn them forward facing...it does not matter how good a baby can hold their head up in a crash nothing is going to stop their head flying forward.

I think you're right but I'll have to check - before the laws came in it was recommended but not enforced.

What gets to me is the parents/grandparents that say they need to be turned around becuase they like to look out the window! Such a big sacrifice for safety for something so trivial.

Joddle said:

What gets to me is the parents/grandparents that say they need to be turned around becuase they like to look out the window! Such a big sacrifice for safety for something so trivial.

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that makes me laugh cause my almost 3 year old has no trouble pointing out things to me while we are driving