Are Chilren's Car Seats with ISOFIX Fittings Safer?

ISOFIX is a relatively new standard for car seat manufacturers and car seat producers. It stands for the International Standards Organisation FIX. The system is also known as LATCH ("Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children") in the United States and LUAS ("Lower Universal Anchorage System") or Canfix in Canada Basically, cars and car seats are produced with ISOFIX fittings which click together to make a very strong and sound connection between the seat and car.

Is it safer than a regular car seat?

In crash test performance research, it has been proved that ISOFIX car seats do not protect your child any better than a regular car seat. A regular car seat will protect just as well as a car seat with an ISOFIX fixture. But there is one very important point to be made about ISOFIX fittings. The whole idea of the ISOFIX fitting is that it eliminates the need to secure the child's car seat to the car by means of the adult seat belt. This in turn, almost completely eliminates any mistakes which may occur due to human error and incorrect fitting of the car seat. It is estimated that up to 80% of children's car seats are fitted incorrectly. An incorrectly fitted child's car seat is extremely dangerous. The incorrectly fitted car seat suffers a considerable lack of support for a child when the vehicle is involved in an accident. This is the huge benefit of using an ISOFIX car seat. You reduce the chance of fitting the seat incorrectly and therefor improve your child's chances of survival in a serious collision.

Not only are ISOFIX car seats easier to secure, they can be quickly and easily removed from the car and have proven to be extremely convenient for parents who purchase a seat which they also wish to carry with them.