These mirrors are popular, but many safety experts feel they are a distraction, and we wouldn't recommend using them.

It's useful to have a secure place for a child’s drink to go so that he or she can reach it, to save you pulling over or engaging in dangerous driving while trying to retrieve the bottle. We would advise using one recommended by the manufacturer. Infant car seats tend to have built-in sunshades, which are not only useful for keeping the sun out, but also provide a layer of protection from flying glass if you're in an accident. The 5 Point Plus Anti-Escape System is an innovative solution to prevent your child from wriggling free from their child-seat harness in forward-facing seats with 5 a point-harness.

In some cases the use of accessories could be a source of contributory negligence if for instance, the driver becomes distracted and causes a collision, or if loose pieces obstruct the use of controls. Any resulting police penalty could have an impact on premium or the driver’s ability to renew.' Saga Although the technology exists, none of the regulations around the world utilise the sensors that could measure the dangerous loads arising from the chest clip and compression. The image below shows the Q3 crash dummy. Driver distraction due to toddlers removing their harness is a risk to all road users and pedestrians. Cosatto is offering parents a real choice between simply buying a seat that complies with safety standards or buying a seat that sets safety standards. Cosatto’s new seat with the integrated 5 point plus anti escape system will help reduce driver distraction and casualties” said Richard Knight of 5 Point Plus. This is a plastic clip that’s attached to the integral harness to hold the straps together, ideally at chest height. It’s designed to stop your child slipping their arms out of the harness. However, they confirmed that this is not too much of an issue if your child is strapped into their car seat using the car’s adult seatbelt, as that will absorb most of the impact. But it does mean that you shouldn’t use this device if your car seat is only installed via the Isofix points and your child is strapped in using a harness.

We asked Britax, one of the leading car seat manufacturers, for its view on seat accessories. A spokesperson said: 'We invest significant time in the research, development and testing of our own manufactured accessories which accompany our child car seats. This ensures that the accessories offered enhance the consumer experience by offering added comfort and practicality, but doesn’t interfere with the crash performance of the car seats. Cosatto has announced that all SS16 Group 1 car seats will incorporate the 5 point plus Anti-Escape System as standard. Of course, a cup in the car could fly free in an accident and a cup-holder may not prevent this, so bear this in mind.It has been extremely successful for those passengers with challenging behaviour and / or learning difficulties. The issue with child car seats is that, even with a correctly ­fitted harness, a toddler can easily push their arms under the harness straps. Toddlers wriggling their shoulders out from their car seat harness is a common problem and renders the car seat ineffective in the event of an accident. Dangerous localised loads generated in the event of a collision (E.g. Viano & King, Yong Han, Jun Ouyang, Koji Mizuno, Anguo Cang) If the car seat cover does not have this, then technically it will mean the car seat is not meeting all the legal requirements. Many examples of chest clips breaking and posing a laceration and choking hazard ( product recalls)

It’s a simple, safe solution to prevent children from slipping their arms out of their car-seat harness. It simply fills in the gap at the side where the child would normally squeeze their hand through and stops the problem occurring. It doesn’t interfere with the harness mechanism; it takes just 20 seconds to fit. Designed to offer postural-support and a certain degree of restraint to children and adults to keep them in an upright sitting position. Some manufacturers make cup-holders that clip on to the side of the seat, and some seats have cup-holders built in. Our car seat experts were concerned that installing a RiveMove may change the load distribution between the Isofix points, meaning they may no longer withstand a crash.

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For more information on viscous injuries please readViano’s and King’sresearch in Biomechanics of Chest and Abdomen Impact, as well as other research within the area.