Child restraint standard tightened

In December 2004 Standards Australia announced that it had tightened the Australian Standard® for child restraints following concerns around the need to improve the safety of children during a side impact collision.

The revised Australian Standard® for child restraints, AS/NZS 1754 Child restraints for use in motor vehicles, was published today and includes the requirements for more rigorous side impact testing.

For the first time the revised standard sees a simulated motor vehicle door being used during testing to help recreate a side impact.

Restraints such as baby capsules, rearward facing seats for infants, forward facing seat for toddlers, bassinet type and booster seats must meet the side impact requirements of the revised standard, which has been designed to help stop a child’s head having any head contact with the door during impact.

The standard allows the use of crash test dummy TNO P11/2. The P 11/2 dummy offers a more flexible approach for testing up to 12 kg.

Importantly it also contains a requirement for booster cushions to be labelled, warning users that the product would not offer satisfactory protection during a side impact and recommends the booster cushion not to used in the outboard seating position.

It is expected that the next revision of the standard will include the rigid system or ISOfix system, which allows for the anchoring of the child restraint to the body car. This will serve to help stabilize the seat in the event of an accident.

Currently, many cars imported to Australia already have fittings that will accept seats with the ISOfix attachments. We are now waiting on the government to revise the Australian Design Rules for cars, before the Standard can be again revised and manufacture of child restraints with these fittings can begin.

Soft tissue injuries sustained by young children, particularly in the neck and pelvis region, suggest that the geometry of the seatbelt may be considered dangerous. Although wearing a seatbelt is far better than wearing no seatbelt at all. Placing children in some kind of a restraint can reduce their chances of injury considerably.

The general rule of thumb to determine if a child no longer requires a child restraint or should move into a larger one is if the level of the child’s eyes are higher than the back of the restraint.

It is important that the weight rather than the age of a child is taken into consideration when choosing a restraint.

Going forward the Standards Committee for child restraints will be considering the development of requirements for large booster seats. This is in response to the suggestion that booster seats should be available to seat children up to the age of 10.

The standard that details methods of testing child restraints, AS/NZS 3629.1, has also been revised to reflect impact test changes.

Standards Australia is a not-for-profit organization with 72 Members and is an internationally recognised leader in the facilitation of standardization solutions. Through its consensus based process, which sees agreement reached between more than 9000 technical committee representatives from industry bodies, trade associations, government and consumer groups, it develops Australian Standards® to benefit the whole community.

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