Okay I had to be a pain in the rump and email this lady.
Here are her replies.
Hi
Thanks for your enquiry and your list of concerns. May I ask what country you are from?
This product has been throughly researched and is not a fly by night product. It has taken two years to get all its approvals. It has been reviewed and approved for legal sale in New Zealand and Australia. It has been seen by both Standards NZ and Australia, The NZ Land Transport Safety Authority & Plunket. Basically anyone here who has anything to do with the legal side of carseats has seen it.
The largest car seat manufacturer here, Brittax has also seen the product. They make the safe & sound range. I met and spoken personally with their NZ General Manager and sent here a final product.They know it is for sale here and they have not tried to stop it. If it was illegal, I am certain they would stop me in an instant.
I have also spoken with the NZ & Australian Reps from the Crash Testing Unit in Australia. They both agreed that it does not require crash testing as it does not alter or hinder the original harnessing. All it is doing is holding them in their designed positions. The carseat standard 1754 in these countries do not take into account chest clips. In both their words (and I have emails to back it), I would be wasting their time and my money if it did get sent for testing at their facility.
Kind regards Bianca
So I wrote Her back and this is what I said.
Then you only need to put them for sale in those countries only. Here in the United States, Nothing should be added with a car seat that wasn't Manufactured with the car seat. EVEN BRITAX which I own one of their seats. All say in the manual DO NOT ADD OR ALTER TO THIS SEAT THAT WASN'T MANUFACTURED WITH THE CAR SEAT. OR WE WILL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE AND IT WILL VOID THE WARRANTY.
That is what it says word for word on my manual for my Marathon. So that means adding your product to the seat will void the warranty. So doing so will void everyones warranty. You don't have any idea the testing process they go through to make the seats safe. Countless kids are killed daily.
THis was her reply back after that one.
Thanks once again for your email. I will add my disclaimer to the website so that people are aware fully that they do need to check their manuals, as I am certain most if not all manuals will have something simular written like that. It is written on the packaging, but it would be good to highlight it before they purchase it as well, so thanks for that.
What is written on your Brittax manual must be there standard blurb as that is also what is written in my manual. :0)
I am not going to be adding to my website that the product is only for sale in Australia & New Zealand, because it is also not illegal for me to sell it in Europe, Asia, America or the UK.
It is illegal for me to sell something that is blatantly dangerous. This product is not, and all due care has been taken ensure this.
I do know what is involved in the testing process as I am sure, Auto Liv the crash testing unit in Australia is. This is the company that agreed that my clip did not need testing. I can't get better confirmation than them as they are the company that crash tests Britax's seats.
As someone wanting to be a car seat Technician, I am sure you have seen and or heard of many dangerous items added to carseats, (people here have been known to use cable ties, pad locks, string) and i do understand your concerns. I have researched this very heavily. My clip is easily seen by emergency services, it is easily removed, it does not alter the carseat strapping in anyway, and does not ride up and cause a choking hazzarrd. And it is temporary. It is only used for the window of time where the child is too small to understand the importance of not removing its arms. Once it is old enough, the clip is removed.
This clip is also not sold with a carseat as an assessory. And it is not marketed as a replacement clip. It is an aftermarket product, which consenting adults can decide to add to their seats if they find there children are removing their arms from the harnesses.
I am sure you will agree that if a child was involved in a car accident, if they didn't fly out of the window, they would most certainly recieve severe abdominal injuries if they were only partially seated within their harnesses. This clip prevents this.
Kind regards Bianca
