I am looking at buying a car with bucket seats and 5 point harnesses. I am just wondering whether it is legal (and therefore presumed safe) to have a child use the seat, with or without a booster. is there a minimum age for this set up?

Does anyone have anyone thoughts? Could be the difference between buying and not buying the car.

Thanks
IanF

 

Hi Ian

Be very careful about this one. I've seen a couple of drivers taking real chances with their kids and being oblivious to the danger.
One turned up in an Evo with a full roll cage fitted, and an unrestrained 5 year old girl in it.
We've seen a number of cars that still use the original seat belts alongside the harnesses, which could be a solution.

 

Dangerous without a cage and annoying in a road car.

Without a cage if you roll a car and the roof comes in your head cannot move = broken neck as you are being held rigid - that's why 3 points exist so that you can slip out to one side if something like that were to ever happen.

On the annoyance factor - they're a pain in the **** to do up, I guarantee you will forget to pull the door in close enough to you to be able to reach it to pull it shut after you've done the belts up or that you will forget to reach for that Werther's original from the glove compartment before having to undo all the belts to reach it or to reach the ticket in the multi storey car park, or to be able to turn around enough to be bale to see to reverse, etc,

Not sure about the legality side but all the above based on my experience of having a removable cage with the belts attached that I use on track but which I take out as soon as I can when I get home to revert to the inertia belts.

 

There is a minimum age for kids to be sat in the front of a car though not having any i'm not sure what it is.

I'm sure someone will be along soon to tell us.

Small kids will come flying out of a harness thats designed for an adult. I've seen the consequences first hand and it wasn't pretty.

 

I would think that as long as the child is secure and not able to move around in the seat then it should be OK. If the holes for the harness means the child isn't firmly secure - ie they don't actually reach the child then clearly this isn't safe.

Having a roll cage without a hellmet irrespective of how you are secured is dangerous - even with padding, IMO it's dangerous.

There was a guy on here using a harness bar in a newage with two child seats in the back. To have a big bit of metal in the middle of the cabin where it was never intended to be is just asking for trouble.

 

As above.

If you have a cage fitted you really must fit a proper harness as the oe belts are not up to the job.

 

Many thanks for all the replies. I'll probably pass up on the car I think. The point about being a pain in the **** is well made as well as the safety issues; the car is fully road legal in terms of roll bar and harnesses, but I think I'll go for a standard 3 point belt set up.
Thanks again
IanF