Volvo is calling on parents to make sure they are using the correct child seats after a recent survey found many might not be using appropriate seating for young children.
The Swedish manufacturer, which is one of the leading car firms when it comes to safety, recommends that parents keep their children in rear-facing seats until they’re at least at the age of four.
While not a legal requirement, Volvo says that doing this “significantly reduces the risk of injury to young children in road traffic accidents”.
However, a survey of 2,030 UK adults found that 94 per cent of parents have ignored this advice by using front-facing child seats when their children are under the age of four. Within this, 20 per cent said they had used a chair facing forward for children less than six months old.
Dr Lotta Jakobsson, senior technical specialist in injury prevention at Volvo Cars, said: “Children up to four need to travel rearward-facing in cars, simply because their neck is too weak to support the head. You therefore need to protect them.
“We need to communicate this message to everybody so they understand the importance of having the children rearward-facing, because if they end up in a high-severity frontal impact, it’s a question of life or death.”
As part of the current Road Safety Week, the survey also asked parents about young drivers. It found that nearly half of parents worry about their teenagers speeding behind the wheel, while 52 per cent of parents would like to control the speed their teenage children can drive at.
Volvo currently offers a ‘Care Key’ package on its cars, which allows a parent or car owner to set a maximum speed for the driver. Earlier this year the firm also imposed a blanket speed limit of 112mph on all its cars.
