The Government is urged to study the need for greater protection for child car passengers.
Under the Road Traffic (Safety Equipment) Regulations, only child passengers of 2 years old or less in the front seat are required to use an approved child car seat.
This same mandatory provision is not extended to cover child car passengers sitting in the rear seat.
The Consumer Council has called on the Government to review the situation with a view to strengthening the protection afforded for children both in the front and rear seats.
The call was contained in a test report on 26 models of child car seats available in the market here.
The Council noted that the use of child restraint devices in cars is not common by local families in Hong Kong. Young children are always held in the arms of mothers or maids when travelling in cars.
But it warned that in the event of an accident, the child can be crushed between the body of the person holding the child and part of the car's interior, or thrown out of the car.
No matter how hard one tries, one would not be able to hold onto the child in a car crash.
The Council held that the safest way for children to travel in cars is in child car seats that are suitable for their weight and size.
Laws requiring children to use suitable child car seats when travelling in private cars are commonplace in some countries or regions.
In Germany, for instance, children under 12 years of age and under 1.5 metres tall must use child car seats when travelling in private cars.
In the test report, it was found that 10 out of the 26 child car seat models were capable of using the ISOFix installation method.
The ISOFix method is much less complicated than the traditional method, requiring the snap connection of the child seat to be latched onto the anchor points in the car, without the need to use the car seat belt.
Since not all cars are capable of installing ISOFix child seats, consumers are advised to refer to the car owners' manuals or check with their agents to ascertain.
In any case, whatever the type of child car seat it is, using a child car seat is still much safer than not using one at all.
When choosing a child car seat, the body build and weight of the child - not the age - is the main criterion.
Further, according to some European studies, the rearward-facing child car seats generally offer a higher level of safety over forward-facing car seats to children at least up to the age of 4 years.
The Transport Department actively promotes education and publicity to deliver essential safety messages to responsible drivers.
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