Child Restraint Laws Update

Was wondering what is the requirements are, if you own a small bus or a van, for children under seven.

My grandson who is 8 years old presently travels in the front passenger seat using the adult sash belt - is this allowed? At what age can a child travel in the front seat?

We have only recently purchased a booster with a H harness (which are not cheap) for our daughter and the old car seat is being used for our new son. She is only 2, so this means we are now up for extra costs to purchase a new car seat. What happens when people just can't afford the extra costs?

i would like to know what age a child has to be in a booster seat and at what age are they allowed to travel in the front seat

Could you please advise the current law/ legislation's name and year as I would like to obtain a copy and cant find this information anywhere. Thanks.

Are swedish designed rear facing child restraints for children up to 4 years illegal to use in australia? if yes, what are the penalties?

Hi there,

Can you please tell me how airbags play part in to what type of car your child and child restarin may be allowed to travel in with the new laws. Just concerned as i was told my child was not able to travel in a car with side airbags yet the grandparents have a car with side airbags (BMW 323i 2000 model) and with a growing family my kids will be on the outter seats NEXT TO the side airbags? I am insisting on them using my safe and sound car seat with a 5 point harness yet they insist they are fine to travel with a booster and normal car seat belt (My son is 3??) I am tending to not agree and be a little concerned to let him travel with them from now on as there will be two children travelling and he will be on the outter side rather then the manufactres recomended MIDDLE car point... should I be??? I have tried looking onto the BMW website yet have found no such answers?? PLEASE HELP????

Hello, yes another question regarding ISOFIX - How can I get my son into my car?

I have just picked up our new car (BMW) and was assured in the showroom that it was fitted with appropriate child restraint points.

However on inspection it only has ISOFIX points across the rear seats. It is not physically possible to add a teather-bolt behind the rear seats because it is a convertible and has seats that do not fold forward preventing access to the boot. Furthermore there is a roll-over protection mechanism that shoots up behind the rear headrests in case of an accident so a strap can't go over that.

In terms of the front passenger seat (as the car manual also indicates that when placing the child seat in the front, a tethering strap can be fed through to hook into the rear ISOFIX latch), - I note that the air bags can't be disabled.

Since ISOFIX seats are believed to be safer anyway, am I best to simply use the ISOFIX system and risk a fine for a few years until we Aussies catchup to the rest of the world?

Very keen to hear your thoughts. Thanks!

Yes I agree that we need to catch up with the rest of the world with the Isofix system. I am a Family Day Care person who has purchased a Hyundai Imax for the purpose of transporting children to and from school. I need to have three baby seats in the middle row, the two outside seats have the ISOFIX latches on and this would make it so much better for the outside seat to move forward for children to access the back seat. We need to lobby for this system to be approved..

My children spend more time on the bus going to and from school than they do in my car. I am legally required to have car seats and proper restraints yet the school bus does not. The smallest children always sit at the front, if the bus crashes those small children will die as the seats are built for larger people and is no restraints. ALL SCHOOL BUSSES NEED TO BE FITTED WITH SAFETY RESTRAINTS AND A NUMBER OF PROPER SEATS FOR THE SMALLER CHILDREN.

My son is 5 months and almost 7kgs. When is best to turn his car seat to forward facing?

Yesterday I spent two hours with the RACQ while they attempted to install a Safe & Sound Premier Kindergarten convertable child seat. When installed in the forward facing position the seat is not well restrained at the base. The lap sash belt passes halfway up the back of the child seat and does not exert any downward pressure to hold the child seat securely. I contacted Safe & Sound on their 1300 number and spoke to some of their staff about this problem. I was amazed when I was told this lack of contact onto the car seat would be corrected when a child was seated. I repeated that the seat lifted easily with my fingertips and could be pulled forward several centimetres with light pressure. They also stated the problem was exacerbated by leather seats! They could not help and told me this problem was 'unique' and none of their staff had heard of such a problem. The RACQ officer then spoke to them and detailed his installation and the problem he saw with the seat. Safe and Sound could not advise us what to do beside putting cloth on the seat to stop side movement ( this was their solution for leather seats)

I then went to the retailer who specialises in baby and child ware including all types of child seats and asked if they had ever heard of this problem. They stated it was a well know problem and Safe & Sound were not at all helpful. The retailers said they had continuing problems with dissatisfied customers. The vehicle is for my daughter who has 7 month old triplets and we are now uncertain what to do. Can anyone explain why Isofix seats can't be used in Australia?

my child is 16 months old am i able to put the childs seat in the front of my ute it is only a 2 seater there is a part in the ute to attach it to

I shudder when I see someone write that they can't afford a proper car seat. Do they value their child's life at $300? Or 7 cases of beer, or a few cartons of smokes..? Have they thought about how much a child's funeral costs, or what the emotional cost of losing a child is? Either did I, until it happened to my family. Wake up everyone, it can happen to you. Do you really want to spend the rest of your life thinking, 'what if I only..?'

I will be travelling in both QLD and NSW for a about 2 weeks total - on a trip from Singapore. One of my sons is 6 years old (almost 7). He is well above the height and weight requirements mentioned in association with the 4-7 age group. He is 30kg and about 130cm tall - by previous guidelines would not have required a booster seat and we have stoppped using one in Singapore and no longer own one. Does the fact that he is not quite 7years old mean that I will need to purchase one for this 2 weeks to meet the legal age requirement? Or would his height and weight be taken into consideration when considering the leagal requirement?

Hi just a question i drive an 8 tonne truck on local runs & wanted to no if any one can tell me about the law on this thanks Shane

Hi, I would like to know how I would be able to seat a 2 half year old and a new born in to the front of a cruiser ute as I need it for work .

My son is 5mths old and 9kg, can I turn his car seat around now or do I need to wait until he is 6 mths.

The is not one single agency responsible for the introduction of ISOFIX. The ADR, Road rules and standards all need changing. Three seperate organisations each waiting for the other. As for testing HOLDEN assisted in testing the ISOFIX system in a commodore in a QLD test lab back around 2006. This PROVED the seats were as good as our curent system – this is all that is required to make it an option. As an asside the Aviation authoritories are also waiting for the car use to be approved before implementing them for air travel (a very good idea as the top tether in aviation is a big problem). ISOFIX design started some 25 years ago with Australia one of the initial countries – there is nothing new. 10 years ago Europe passed the laws enableing its use and cars hit the road. Dont expect action soon!!! RICARO was forming an action group. look them up on the Internet and see if they need some extra momentum.