USA car seat in Europe

Unregistered · May 12, 2007

We recently moved to Brussels, Belgium and my 2 yr old, (31lb. 36") son rides in a Britax Roundabout. I had never really thought about it until now, but am realizing that there are different safety regulations about car seats between Europe and the US. Does anyone know if I need to get a "European approved" seat for him to ride in while we live here, or is our USA seat okay?

Does anyone have any reccomendations for a good seat that may grow with him a bit (his isn't yet, but I know he will soon be out of the Roundabout) and would be "European approved"? Thanks for the help.
Jessica

UlrikeDG · May 12, 2007

Why did you move to Belgium? If you're with the US military, you're fine. The SOFA covers child restraints, so you're allowed to use either seats which comply with US standards or with Belgian standards.

If you're there for another reason, you may be required to use a European seat. Once he turns front facing, there are a number of nice European seats with a 5-point harness. ADAC and the Austrian version of AAA put out annual crash test results which it may be helpful to view. They're all written in German, however.

Brusselsmama · May 12, 2007

We aren't a military family, but we are here with the US State Dept., and thus a part of the American Diplomatic community. Do you know if this means we are still covered by SOFA?

Also do you have any good suggestions on where I can read more about what the Belgian car seat requirments are?

thanks for the help
jessica

UlrikeDG · May 12, 2007

I don't know if the diplomatic employees have an exception or not (whether under the SOFA or otherwise). You should be able to find out from your employer how things work.

I don't know about Belgian seats specifically, but there's a lot of crossover within the EU, so you'll probably find that there are French, German, British, and even Scandinavian seats on the shelves in your local baby shops. The 2006 ÖAMTC tests are online here: ÖAMTC - Kindersitztest 2006. Keep an eye on this page for the release of the 2007 results. You could also check the 2005 results, as they don't retest all the seats every year. Also, those are only seats that are available in Germany & Austria. You may have other brands in Belgium which don't make it that far south.

Morganthe · May 12, 2007

Belgium Car seat regs hasn't been updated since 2005, so it might be out of date with EU compliance.

SOFA -- Status of Forces Agreement usually only applies to US military, their dependants, and DOD civillians and our policies with foreign military on US soil & property.
I"m sure the State Dept. has their own agreements for personnel & families abroad. The Official Site might be the first place to start looking & ask questions.

Hopefully, you'll be able to continue using your own carseat without too much problems. The over 40lb harnessed carseats are very new to Europe. I think there's only one model on the market, I could be wrong, though. Booster seat use begins early, but I happened to like a lot of their styles. Very protective on SIP. But, IMO, I"d rather keep a child in a 5pt as long as possible, especially if they're tall for their age.
hth

jef · May 13, 2007

EU regulations have changed since september 2006. The same minimum regulations apply in all EU countries (note: not all european countries are part of the EU).

Those minimum rules state: children (younger than 18 years old) and smaller than 1,35m are required to use an EU approved safety device. A EU approved safety device should have an ECE-R44/03 or ECE-R44/04 label.

Every country is allowed add extra requirements to those minimum rules. Belgium rules are stated here in dutch (perhaps you could translate this online somwhere) http://www.ibsr.be/main/Actualiteit..._het_veilig_vervoer_van_kinderen_in_de_wagen_ afaik these are just the minimum EU requirements.

Here is a PDF of belgium consumer reports with tested seats http://www.test-aankoop.be/images/39/390411_Attach.pdf It seems they use the same test data as the Austrian OAMTC.

Knittingfor4 · May 13, 2007

Oh, I checked out some of those seats and they are very neat looking! But how does that harness work? Seems like the kid would be outta there in a crash ff

And what is ISO fix? I assume some type of LATCH, how does it work? Would any of these seats be compatible with an American vehicle?

Starlight · May 13, 2007

The harnesses on european seats are positioned differently to allow them to stay on in a crash without a retainer clip/chest clip. Here in the states, we use them as a pre-crash positioner - they will most likely break in any crash, but the point is for them to keep the harness where it needs to be before the crash.

Isofix is the same thing as LATCH. Canadians call LATCH Isofix, as well.

Many/Most would be compatible with American vehicles, however, US Customs Regs & other stuff do not allow the use of non-FMVS 213 approved seats here in the states.

Some are not compatible.. like for example, the British infant seat (Graco Autobaby, similar to a Snugride) I used for my older ds required that the seatbelt go all the way behind the seat - so the lap belt went over the seat, the shoulder belt wrapped behind it. There was no base. In our American vehicle, the belts simply weren't long enough to do this.

USA car seat in Europe

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