RENAULT’S RENOWNED CHILD SEATS ARE BEING HOMOLUGATED FOR SALE IN SOUTH AFRICA
Guillaume Sicard, VP Marketing for Renault South Africa, said Isofix child seats eliminate the common mistakes parents make when feeding a seat belt through the loops that hold normal child seats in place.
“While all new European cars must have Isofix hooks, most of the child seats used by South African parents are of the old fashioned type that require a seat belt to be held in place.”
Sicard said while no research is available in South Africa, the UK’s Automobil Association Motoring Trust estimates that up to 66% of all child seats were incorrectly fitted.
“The results can be fatal, as tests on dummies by the Transport Research Laboratory have shown that the normal mistakes made by parents when strapping in a child seat can cause the child to be killed during collisions at speeds as low as 30 km/h. Our Isofix chairs simply clip onto hooks that form part of the front passenger and rear seats to become part of the in-cabin safety systems that gave all eight Renault passenger cars sold in South Africa the maximum five star safety rating in Euro-NCAP crash-tests,” said Maartens.
Sicard said Renault South Africa planned to make their Isofix seats available at competitive prices to retailers to make safety more affordable.
“All children’s car seats sold in SA, including booster seats, have to conform to the SABS standards for consumer health and safety. When the Renault chairs are approved, we aim to make them available as cheaply as possible to afford parents the ease of use and improved safety of an Isofix chair,” he said.
Malcolm Midgley, spokesperson for emergency services in Johannesburg, welcomed the increased focus on child restraints by vehicle manufacturers.
“Too many parents are still unconcerned about, or unaware of the need for in-car child restraints, despite the increasing volumes of traffic and collisions on our city roads. Our officers see many people each day who drive with their children standing between the seats or even sitting on their laps behind the steering wheel,” Midgley said.
Sicard said that Renault South Africa, who already sponsors the Motoring Journalists Guild’s Committee for Active Road Safety Belt-Up campaign, would support legislation to make booster-seats mandatory for children shorter than 1,43 cm.
“Booster seats position the child at the correct height for the pre-tensioner seatbelt, which can otherwise injure the child during a collision,” said Sicard.
He cited an analysis of 3616 vehicle crashes between 1998 and 2002 by researchers at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, which showed that booster seats reduce the risk of abdominal or neck injuries from adult seat belts by 59%.
Sicard said Renault-owners should be able to order Isofix child seats from their dealers.
For more information, kindly contact Renault South Africa’s Communications Department:
Cecilia Maartens
Vice President: Communications
Tel : +27 11 607 7406
Cell : +27 82 455 9327
Hanlie du Preez
Media Relations Manager
Tel : +27 11 607 7306
Cell : +27 72 942 5511
