Mother warns parents against car seat strap covers after baby was thrown across vehicle during crash

Road safety experts confirm that accessories like this can affect a car seat's performance

A mother has issued a warning to parents not to use car seat strap covers after her baby was thrown across her vehicle during a collision.

Posting a photo of the sheep skin strap covers she attached to her baby’s car seat on Facebook, Hannah McKinney from Georgia, US, shared her story in a bid to urge parents not to put anything on their child’s car seat that it didn’t originally come fitted with.

“These were on my two-month-old daughter's car seat when she was involved in a flip over car accident,” McKinney wrote.

“The vehicle cartwheeled twice and rested on its side. She was ejected from the seat due to the sheep skin seat belt covers.”

She goes on to explain that when they checked the vehicle afterwards, the straps were tight and in tact, and the car seat base was still firmly attached.

For this reason, she believes that the sheep skin covers slid against her daughter’s shirt causing her to “go flying out” of the car seat.

“Please, please, please people do not put things on a car seat that did not come that way from the manufacturer,” McKinney warns.

She adds that by adding accessories to the car seat its warranty becomes void in case of an accident and that since the collision she has attended a car seat safety class which “was a real eye opener.”

“We had to learn the hard way and I thank god everyday that he had his hands on her! They may look cute and it may be soft but for your child’s safety don’t do it,” she concludes.

Speaking to The Independent about the mother’s warning, Nick Lloyd, road safety manager for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (ROSPA) said: “Our advice is we don’t recommend any accessories unless they have been crash tested and recommended by the individual car seat manufacturer as safe to be used in conjunction with the seat.

“The majority of accessories such as the example shown will not have been crash tested and as such it is difficult to know how they will affect the car seats performance under crash conditions.”

When it comes to choosing a car seat for your child, the ROSPA states that it must:

• Conform to the United Nations standard, ECE Regulation 44.04 (or R 44.03) or  i-size regulation, R129. Look for the 'E' mark label on the seat.
• Be suitable for your child's weight and size
• Be correctly fitted according to the manufacturer's instructions

For further information on choosing, fitting, and using child car restraints as well as information on the law and safety standards visit rospa.com