Hi, just wondering if anyone knows exactly what are the new regulations for booster seats for 4 year olds and up. We are about to have our third and need to buy a new booster for our 4 1/2 year old we were just going for a small box booster but have heard that there is supposed to be new laws coming in about this. Does anyone know the details, we really don't want to buy something and then find that it will be illegal in the next year or so.
i've just had a car capsule fitted into my car and the fitter at the ambulance was telling me all the new regulations coming in as of june this year. if i we're you i'd ring the ambulance in your area and ask them, cause i'm not sure if each state is going to be different.
she mentioned something about when i change to a older car seat it would be advisable to buy a AHR seat so it lasts longer and it used to go off the childs weight and now it goes off their age.
My sister emailed the RTA and when they replied she forwarded it to me. According to what they say the laws havent changed.
A child should be in a child seat until 18kg or until its shoulders are 25mm above the highest seat belt slot or if their eye level is higher then the top of the child seat. They should then be in a booster until they meet the weight requirements of the chosen booster. They suggest most child seats will hold are child until they are 4-4.5 years of age (however my daughter out grew her child seat at 3 years by height not weight so its a rough age figure.)
1) Children must use rearward facing child restraints up to six months old.
2) Children six months up to their fourth birthday must use a rearward or forward facing child restraint with in-built harness
3) Children from four years up to their seventh birthday must use a booster seat
4) Children up to their fourth birthday must sit in the rear seat
5) Children up to seventh birthday to sit in rear seat unless all rear seats are already occupied by children under seven.
We would strongly recommend that from the ages of four to seven the additional Child Safety Harness is used in conjunction with a baby booster car seat to help restrain the upper part of a child?s body as well as keeping the belt around the hip area tight.
Does that mean that there is no actual regulation on the type of booster for 4 yo's and up? I heard that they were going to outlaw the foam boosters and box boosters
I'm a trained restraint fitter & do fitting almost daily, so feel free to shot questions at me.
first thing I need to say is please be careful what you listern to as there are a few places in victoria that have been giving out false or misleading inforamtion & please try not to worry yourself that you are doing anything wrong, yes you are correct in that the laws are due to change but it has NOT been implemented just yet, the first state to get the change will be WA in june 2009, as for the rest of the states it probably won't change till sometime in 2010 & I believe that the government is trying to have the changes the same across the board.
the best website to visit is the RTA website, I don't think funny enough vicroads has even updated their website yet. but the RTA website has the info on it and is very useful to read.
sorry if this is confusing, but like I said fel free to ask me questions if I can help I will
I'm in Qld and have been thinking about thw whole booster seat thing, my son will be 7 in August and i'm wondering if it is law for him to stay in a booster until he actually turns 7 or can i take him out now? His eye's are level with the top of the booster!
My 6yo is too big for a booster. Too heavy. All muscle so its not something we can reign in.
Haz has only just turned 3, but he is 15kgs - all muscle too. Car seats are only weighted to 18kgs - so I will need to put Haz in a booster much sooner. He is looking forward to it because it has Lightning McQueen on it, lol. I wanna clean the reversable for the baby anyway.
They say they are going by age because we - being parents - arent all going to be up on our kids height and weight... This still irks me. I know all 5 of my kids height and weight and will continue to use that as per the safety recommendations of the equipment I am using.
I have a real problem with this. Even the maxi rider II doesn't allow for children DS's size to use the inbuilt harness at his age. He is too tall for the inbuilt harness' in every car seat we have looked at so we have had no alternative than to use a booster with a harness. It really irritates me as it IS just as dangerous to use a seat that is unsuitable as to use no seat at all. I left DS in his car seat as long as I possibly could by the time we moved him to his booster (its high back btw) his shoulders were about an inch and a half taller than the last outlet for the inbuilt harness.
What I want to see are boosters with hooks (I know some are available) and in built harness for older children.
(sorry mini vent here)
I really think they need to publicise this better, and get the car seat industry to lift their game to fit requirements. ATM a lot of our car seats wouldn't meet a lot of international safety standards and thats pretty bad.
Same issues here Inertia - DD1 is 3 in June and is 18.5kg and 108cm tall - finding a booster that may take her for a reasonable time period has been a challenge. It has also been pretty tricky getting good advice from some of the shops as she is so young for her size.
There are boosters that my nearly 9 year old fits in (she is not in them as they only just came out but looked with a friend and used her as a reference for hieght) and she is 143cm tall you just have to look around. And even though car seats say 18 kilos they are actually tested to 22 at this point in time. So you can leave them in it longer if they are not to tall.
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New Car seat regulations????
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