Are not all forward facing seats ECE R44.03/ECE R44.04 tested and approved?
The ECE R44.03/ECE R44.04 test has been developed by the United Nations. All car seats have to pass this test to be approved for sale in the UK or in the EU. The test is conducted by putting the seat in a crash test vehicle. A dummy is placed in the seat. A bar is placed 550 mm in front of the dummy in the seat. The vehicle is crashed. The test will see if the dummy hits its head on the bar or hits any other part of the vehicle as well as its chest acceleration. It will also measure if the seat slides. At the moment, the test does not look at what happens to internal organs or what forces the neck is subjected to. Some consumer tests are looking at introducing a new type of dummy, the so called Q-dummy. This dummy measures the forces the dummy (and in effect child) is subjected to, but at the moment it is not used for ECE testings. If they were to be introduced, the test results could change dramatically, so it is well worth keeping an eye on when these new dummies might be introduced!
