KEEPING
YOUR FAMILY SAFE ON THE ROAD
Recent
surveys reveal that over 71% of parents in the UK are not aware
that legally a child needs to be in a car seat/booster until they are 12 years
old, and that SUVs are
the choice of car for modern mums looking to keep their family safe…
When it comes to a family car, there are
so many options out there that you may well wonder which car to go for. As a
modern mum you want to keep your family safe… apparently an SUV is what you
need.
Sales
of SUVs have quadrupled in Europe since 2005 and are expected to keep rising
thanks to growing popularity with an unusually diverse group of buyers,
according to a new survey.
Once
the choice of a select few ski buffs and outdoor enthusiasts, SUVs have been
embraced by ‘Modern Mums,’ mothers with young kids, Millennials, 17- to
34-years-olds, and ‘Quintastics,’ for active and youthful 50‑somethings.
Nearly
one in three ‘Modern Mums’ are considering an SUV for their next car, as are
one in four Millennials; and one in five ‘Quintastics,’ according to a new Ford
Motor Company-sponsored survey of 5,000 people in the U.K, France, Germany,
Italy and Spain who own a car or who intend to buy one in the next 12 months.
“SUVs
have grown from a tiny niche in Europe to one of the most significant
automotive trends of the past decade,” said Roelant de Waard, vice president,
Marketing, Sales & Service, Ford of Europe. “Every time someone predicts
SUV sales will cool down, they are proven wrong. That’s because SUVs have
widespread appeal with men and woman, young and older people.”
Of
those surveyed, 82 per cent say keeping their family safe has become more
important. With that in mind, what about UK Car Seat safety?
According to the Automobile Association
(AA) in the UK around 5,000 children under the age of 16 die or are seriously
injured on Britain’s roads each year.
These are among the key findings
identified in a Diono survey*** conducted across 2000 parents throughout the UK
with one or more children aged from 4-8.
These statistics demonstrate that
although parents want their children to be safe, they are unaware of what to
look for in a car seat and often don’t understand what is legally required of
them.
Shockingly, over 71% of parents
in the UK don’t know that legally a child needs to be in a car seat/booster
until they are 12 years old (135cm tall), so many parents break the law and put
their children at risk on a regular basis unknowingly.
The survey revealed that when it
comes to Car Seats, parents of 4-8 year olds do put security of their children
first with the majority saying that side impact protection is the most
important aspect when choosing a car seat, however a staggering 70% of UK
parents do not know the legal age/height requirements associated with car seat
safety.
The Diono survey revealed that UK
parents’ priority was safety with 56% saying that side impact protection was
the most important aspect of a car seat. This was closely followed by overall
comfort and then ease of use and fitting. When it came to what they didn’t like
about their car seat the majority said they found it difficult to adjust, this
is supported by data from car seat check clinics which show up to 85% of seats
are incorrectly fitted/adjusted. This was followed closely by difficult to
clean, this figure jumped for the over 50’s who said they found the fact that
the car seat was difficult to clean the most annoying aspect of a car seat,
with younger parents focusing on ISOFIX and EPS features specifically in all
questions.
56% of parents say that side
impact protection is the most valuable feature in a car seat, above overall
comfort, but not all car seats have side impact protection. Through this
survey, the car seat company, Diono, are expressing that although there are
lots of car seats on the market, not all have the same safety features.
*JATO Dynamics results are based on information provided by JATO
Consult, the company's bespoke consulting service. Figures are based on 30 European countries.
** Calculation based on European Commission eurostat data that of
estimated EU 28 population of 508,450,856, those aged 17‑ to 34-years-old
account for 111,914,312 people, and those aged 50-59 account for 69,974,620
people http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/data/database
*** Source: OnePoll (May 2015 -
based on 2,000 respondents.