Stores Fail To Fit Car Seats Properly

18 July 2014, 06:00

An undercover investigation has found 90 percent of shops made "potentially dangerous mistakes" when fitting children's car seats.

Experts from Which? saw a catalogue of mistakes when they visited 42 stores across Britain asking staff to fit two different car seats. Only four managed to fit both properly, while thirteen failed to ask any essential questions beforehand. Some of the errors included fitting the seat with the support leg still folded under the base of the seat making it unstable.

Heart has been speaking to parents who say they're shocked by the research. One told us:

"It is actually horriifc, bearing in mind how important it is. When we bought our car seat we looked at safety as the biggest factor"

Which? editor Richard Headland said:

``It's unacceptable that retailers are providing such shockingly poor fitting services, which could potentially be putting children at risk. We have given our findings to the retailers and urged them to improve their staff training and knowledge of child car seats so they offer the correct advice every time. Parents should be able to trust the advice they get from major retailers.''

All the major retailers involved say they have taken the finding on board. Mamas & Papas told Which? it had worked ``incredibly hard'' to educate store colleagues about car seat safety and was disappointed with the findings, while Babies R Us said it would build and strengthen training and support and John Lewis told them it would ensure points raised were reflected in training.