Over half of car seats are fitted incorrectly in the UK | Key4Communications |

51% of child car seats checked in the last year were fitted incorrectly, according to Car Seat Safety Ltd. The car seat fitting experts checked 1,800 child car seats in 2014 at community checking events (where a free checking service is offered to parents at supermarkets and retails parks) and enforcement days (where police officers pull cars off the road for safety checks).

Overall, more than half of the child car seats checked were fitted incorrectly. Many of the mistakes were common ones, such as the seatbelt not being in the route guides or Isofix points not being clicked into place, and 74% of these were easily rectifiable.

Of those that could be rectified:
•    32% needed the child car seat harness adjusting.
•    23% of car seats fitted using a seatbelt had issues with the seatbelt being too loose or twisted
•    24% of car seats fitted using a seatbelt, had issues with the seatbelt not being in the route guides correctly.
•    18% of those with Isofix weren't installed correctly.

However, some faults were related to whether the child was in the right car seat for their age, weight or height, and so a different seat would be needed to offer maximum protection.