No such thing as CRS technicians in South Africa

pepeti

New member
Thank you all for a most interesting site. I am from South Africa and have been following this website for a few days. I have got to confess a few things:

I have just searched the south african web; there appears to be no such thing as a CRS technician in my country. This horrifies and apalls me when I think that in the month of December we had over 1200 road deaths (and we are patting ourselves on the back because this is down from 2006).

FYI, the majority of people in south africa do not place their children in car seats, and I stand to be corrected on this, but I believe that a car seat is not even a legal requirement for a child!

It is perfectly commonplace to see children riding on the laps of an adult in the front seat (neither wears a seatbelt) or standing between the two front seats having a conversation with the front occupants.

It is unheard of to have a technician assess or assist with car seat placement, and in fact, those who do use car seats tend to put the child FF as soon as he/she is 9kg (18lbs)

I am putting this out to you because I am really hoping that someone may actually have information to the contrary of what I have stated, otherwise it is incredibly concerning
 
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U

Unregistered

Guest
Most baby shops have someone who will assist with installing the seat correctly, but I have no idea if they have any special qualification to do it.

The legal side is a tad weird, and definitely concerning. If there is a car seat in the car, the kid must be in it, but if not, they must be in a seatbelt, if there is one.

Most people put their kids FF at 9kg, it drives me mad. However, those who want to keep them rearfacing have huge problems. Nearly no seats RF beyond 10kg. A couple go to 13kg but are so low, they wouldn't really manage much longer with a light skinny child than a chubby one. And legally car seats are supposed to have SABS approval which means that one would be technically illegal in an imported seat. Though I doubt a traffic cop would stop one, there is just the danger of lack of insurance cover in the event of an accident. The road traffic act does give one a slight out, saying that if one can convince the MEC of Transport that you have an excuse for breaking the law (I think they mainly meant some physical reason one can't wear a seatbelt but it could work for using the wrong car seat), you are okay.
 

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