In fact, for most types of accidents, a booster seat is as safe as a full child seat.
Have you ever wondered why the major childrens' car seat manufacturers don't make booster seats?
It wouldn't be in their interest financially. Why sell something for 10USD when you can sell something for 200USD?
Did you know that major childrens' car seat manufacturers exert so much pressure on crash safety testing facilities that it would be financial suicide for these facilities to test booster seats.
The guys behind Freakonomics did research into the safety of car seats for kids. They found that above the age of 2 all that is required is a seat belt at the correct height. All of the car seat manufacturers claims are their seats versus an unrestrained child.
Same with the fanatical movement around rear-facing child seats. Sure they come out as safer than forward facing seats in certain types of accidents (direct rear impact collisions I think, can't remember all the precise details off the top of my head), but all the marketing fails to mention that in the event of an accident it would be safer for ALL passengers in a car to be rear-facing... including the driver! They don't give you any stats on other types of accidents. They don't quantify that it's actually a marginal improvement in safety which many people may feel is outweighed by other factors, e.g. forward facing child easier to keep happy, so less screaming in the car, so less likelihood of driver being distracted from safe driving. They just play to the guilt-factor of being a parent to make you shell out for much more expensive seats... as I did, in the full knowledge of everything I've just said :-)
Actually, it's the other way around- a front impact.
If you drive into something, you get thrown forwards.
For a young baby, whose neck is not strong enough, getting thrown forward can be fatal.
With the seat the other way round (forward facing), this would be the case.
With a rear-facing child seat and a collision from the rear, this protection isn't here.
Which is my point. Of course a full child seat is safer than a booster - but only for side impact crashed - which are much rarely than frontal impacts.
Frontal impacts (driving into something) are much more common than rear-impacts. Is this wasn't the case then we'd all get told to put babies in front-facing seats.
It's rather like those Daily Mail statistics that say if you eat five raw onions a day, you'll half the chance of getting a particular type of rare cancer.
Sounds worth doing (despite being pretty disgusting to eat and a way to lose all your friends), until you read a bit further into it and discover that only 1 in 100,000 people get this sort of cancer.
My child has just started taking a taxi service to school for which we are told we need to get a booster seat. He is 1 month shy of 8 yr old and 38 kg. We borrowed a neighbor's booster this morning as we don't have one since our car has built-in boosters. The taxi driver informed me that he does not have to be in a booster since he weighs more than the range indicated for boosters (15 - 36 kg). Can anyone confirm that this is correct? I see boosters that accomodate higher weight ranges in the USA but did not see any on the Suisse site I looked at. Thanks for any help you can provide!
I have a half related question: is there a way to fit 3 carseats to the back side of a rather large car (i.e. audi a4 estate), and would that be somehow illegal? The current two seats we have take more space than a normal human, and I dont want to change my car if possible...
Large on the outside and small on the inside. The rather large Audi Q5s are the same with regard to child seats.
A possible solution is for one of the adults to travel in the back between the two child seats and one of the children to travel in the front in their child seat.
Or ask Audi?
"Which" Magazine doesn't think it's possible and says your only option is a backless booster in the middle seat.
It's not illegal but if you have to strap in with seat belt each time then you end up breaking your hand each time and get good practice on your swearing... It is really hard to get 3 across, unless you have a VW Transporter or something like that!
That's a good BMI your kid has, keep up the good work
Thanks for your concern Sean
He has special needs (hence his taking a taxi to school) which require him to be on certain meds that tend to promote weight gain. It is the lesser of two evils...
It is great for travelling and can fit in the middle of two big car seats. We picked ours up in the US while we were out there but they are from a UK company and sold on Amazon and other websites....
They are more for travelling and useful if you need a third seat in the middle.
We just have one kid and use the Romer Kid Fix (iso fix) seats as the main seat in both cars as these provide the best protection, then have boosters with arms for an extra seat (or can put two Kid fixes into one car). The Bubble bum could be used as a third seat or for when travelling and you need it for taxis...
Our boy and his friends are skinny as rakes.
So for us it's perfect for what we bought it for. Obivously you need to decide if it suits your needs and check the size and limitations (weight) for your child which is detailed on the website.