The new car seat legislation

BeSafe has launched the first child car seat on the market to meet new safety demands. As of June 2017, the United Nations raised the bar for children’s car safety with phase two of the UN R129. What has changed?

Our society and technology are constantly evolving. Legislation also changes, in order to ensure safer products.  i-Size is a comprehensive set of child restraint seat regulations developed by the United Nations.

Safety means more than anything to us at BeSafe. That’s why we are happy to welcome the UN’s new car seat standard UN R129-02. BeSafe has been working as a part of the deciding committee to develop this new benchmark. What we have been implementing in our products for years, has now become a safety standard that will secure even more children.

BeSafe has launched the first booster seat on the market that fully complies with the new safety requirements. The award-winning high-back booster seat BeSafe iZi Flex FIX i-Size is approved as an i-Size booster seat for children between 100 to 135 cm tall, and specific vehicle booster for children between 135 to 150 cm tall.

The second phase of UN R129 will bring some major changes for children above 100 cm tall. The update includes booster seats with integrated backrests for children between 100 to 150 cm tall.

• The classification of car seats is now based on centimetres rather than kilograms, since parents often know more accurately how tall their child is. This makes it easier to choose the right and safest seat.
• Side impact testing criteria has been added to the existing frontal impact tests. The introduction of demanding impact criteria with Q-dummies makes it necessary to offer good body and head protection. With the introduction of abdomen sensors in the Q-dummies, the effect of submarining (when a child’s body slides under the lapbelt) is measured and prohibited. BeSafe has always tested our car seats for side impact.
• Only car seats with backrests will be safety-approved. High-technology crash test Q- dummies, equipped with head sensors, neck sensors and abdomen pressure sensors, tell us more about the potential damage to inner organs now, than just a few years ago. We know that a properly designed backrest offers crucial protection for the child’s head and body, especially in a side impact car crash.
• i-Size booster seats can accommodate children with a height between 100 to 135 cm and have to fit into a predefined ISO box with a maximum width of 44 cm.
• Specific vehicle booster seats can accommodate children with a height between 100 to 150 cm and have to fit into a predefined ISO box with a mximum width of 52 cm.
• Booster cushions without backrest are no longer approved by the UN R129-02.
• Depending on the country, national legislation demands approved child safety up to a height of 150 cm. The car seat will get a ‘specific vehicle’ approval.  This addition to the UN R129 regulations imposes higher limitations for outer and inner dimensions of the car seat. A car seat can thus have two approvals.
• The criteria for internal dimensions are required to fit 95% of the children within the height range. Weight limitations have not been defined, as the vehicle belt takes the load in a frontal impact.

BeSafe has developed car seats for more than 50 years. A lot has changed over time, but our focus has always been the same: your child’s safety. In this matter, we will never be satisfied, as we strive to always deliver and exceed safety demands. We are constantly developing new innovations to make our products even safer and more user-friendly. Our vision is to have no child seriously injured in a road accident while seated in a BeSafe car seat.