AustinMusic
Active member
I was recently researching car seat history in Scandinavia and came across this product:
Sit Safe TiltBack
Initially I thought the concept was great; a rear-facing seat with an upper weight limit of 20 kg (44lbs) which has been designed for a market where car seats are seen as ‘impractical’ and where they could help reduce injury rates. However the more I thought about the concept, I began to wonder whether this seat is actually useful.
The concept is very positive, and if used correctly I’m sure it would be beneficial however much like the multimac seat I can see some limitations:
• Will anyone use it? If someone (that is to say the average not-so-car-seat-savvy person) is simply travelling one or two stops are they going to bother using it?
• If so, will they use it correctly – e.g. remove a child’s winter coat and adjust the harness correctly? If not, is it worth it (misuse, etc)?
• If it were to get damaged through general wear and tear, and happened to get stuck in the “child seat” position, would the loss of a bus seat annoy those wanting to sit down?
• Are there any concerns about hygiene – how often does it get cleaned?
I don’t know the exact the market to which it is aimed, but I suspect it would be targeted at the middle-distance bus services such as airport shuttles and weekend rail replacement buses. If so, then of how much value is it when under EU legislation, the buses and coaches than usually operate on these routes have seat belts fitted which, theoretically at least, mean a car seat could installed anyway (provided it was a reasonable fit)?
I want to like it and I admire the pro rear-facing approach and entrepreneurship (it has patents in Europe, the USA, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Japan, Korea and Australia!), but I can’t help but think it is a little impractical, even if it happens to be the only seat of its type. As best I can tell the website is fairly old so perhaps the venture was unsucessful...
Does anyone else have an opinion?
Sit Safe TiltBack
Initially I thought the concept was great; a rear-facing seat with an upper weight limit of 20 kg (44lbs) which has been designed for a market where car seats are seen as ‘impractical’ and where they could help reduce injury rates. However the more I thought about the concept, I began to wonder whether this seat is actually useful.
The concept is very positive, and if used correctly I’m sure it would be beneficial however much like the multimac seat I can see some limitations:
• Will anyone use it? If someone (that is to say the average not-so-car-seat-savvy person) is simply travelling one or two stops are they going to bother using it?
• If so, will they use it correctly – e.g. remove a child’s winter coat and adjust the harness correctly? If not, is it worth it (misuse, etc)?
• If it were to get damaged through general wear and tear, and happened to get stuck in the “child seat” position, would the loss of a bus seat annoy those wanting to sit down?
• Are there any concerns about hygiene – how often does it get cleaned?
I don’t know the exact the market to which it is aimed, but I suspect it would be targeted at the middle-distance bus services such as airport shuttles and weekend rail replacement buses. If so, then of how much value is it when under EU legislation, the buses and coaches than usually operate on these routes have seat belts fitted which, theoretically at least, mean a car seat could installed anyway (provided it was a reasonable fit)?
I want to like it and I admire the pro rear-facing approach and entrepreneurship (it has patents in Europe, the USA, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Japan, Korea and Australia!), but I can’t help but think it is a little impractical, even if it happens to be the only seat of its type. As best I can tell the website is fairly old so perhaps the venture was unsucessful...
Does anyone else have an opinion?
