The Good Egg In-Car Child Safety Campaign.

MORE than half of child car safety seats are incorrectly fitted, a county council campaign has found.

Cambridgeshire County Council has hosted six in-car clinics since November as part of the ‘Good Egg In-Car Child Safety Campaign’ - which aims to highlight the dangers of incorrectly fitted child car seats.

The clinics found that just 47 per cent of the seats were correctly fitted. Of the remainder, 34 per cent had minor faults, 12 per cent had major faults and 7 per cent were incompatible with the child or car.

The results for Cambridgeshire are slightly better than those country-wide, where just 45 per cent of the 2,631 car seats checked were correctly fitted.

Matt Staton, the county council’s road safety officer, said: “In speaking to parents at these events it is evident that a lack of awareness is a big problem, with many not realising that car seats do not necessarily fit all cars, or not understanding how tightly the seat or harness should be fitted.

“The aim of this campaign in Cambridgeshire is two-fold - to correct any fitting errors and ensure parents leave the events able to check and re-fit the seat themselves, and to arm parents with information about child car seats which they can use in purchasing new seats and pass on to friends and family.”

The ‘Good Egg In-Car Child Safety Campaign’ has already helped to significantly reduce the casualty rates among child passengers in Scotland.

More free car seat checks are being held at the following venues: Tesco - Bar Hill, Tesco – Huntingdon, Tesco – Milton, Morrisons – Cambourne, Tesco – March, Asda – Wisbech, Tesco – St Neots, Asda – Beehive Centre, and Waitrose – Ely.

Dates for these events, and others nationally, can be found on the Good Egg Safety website or smart phone app, available at www.goodeggcarsafety.com