Child car seat safety

HurdyGurdy

If a child's car seat has a harness fitting and the child has outgrown the harness but still is within the guideline limits for the seat, would it be ok to still use the seat with just a lap and diagonal seatbelt if the straps are moved out of th child's way?

The seat was originally used with the harness straps as well as the lap and diagonal.

LilElvis

I would say if they have outgrown the harness then they have outgrown the seat. The harness is there for a reason, otherwise it wouldn't have been included in the seat design.

z1a

I would think it safer to use a booster seat with the normal belts.

HurdyGurdy

Thank you. I hate booster seats (not high backed boosters) but I am not sure if it is safe (or legal?) to use a harnessed seat without the harness

molerat

HurdyGurdy wrote: »

Thank you. I hate booster seats (not high backed boosters) but I am not sure if it is safe (or legal?) to use a harnessed seat without the harness

No it is neither safe nor legal. The seat must only be used in the designed way.

HurdyGurdy

molerat wrote: »

No it is neither safe nor legal. The seat must only be used in the designed way.

Thank you. I have been looking online for ages, but can't find anything definitive to say that this is the case. Do you know of any websites I might find this information

GwylimT

Any car seat must be used in accordance with the instructions as this is how the seat is crash tested etc. If the harness no longer fits the seat also isn't going to offer adequate protection. You need the next stage of seat.

janed9388

our car seat says you must use the standard car seat belt once the child is too heavy for the harness (can't remember what the weight was though - sorry). You need to check your instructions I think

Kynthia

Some car seats are designed to move from using a harness to using the seat belt once the child reaches a certain stage. This will be in the instructions though. It is very dangerous to use a car seat in a way it's not designed for or to not fit it correctly. You have no idea how it will behave in a crash and whether it would do more harm.

pigpen

it depends on the seat.

Two of ours have a 5 point harness up to 15kg and after that you use the 3 point seat belt.. read the manual on your actual car seat it will give details in there.. we don't know what seat you have so cannot advise whether it is safe or not.

HurdyGurdy

Thanks all. It's not my seat - I use a Britax Britfix XP SICT one in my car. It's my grandaughter's dad's seat in his car, and he won't tell my daughter what kind he has. My daughter is paranoid when her child is in his car, as he has before driven without working brakes, claiming that it was perfectly safe because he knows how to slow the car down using the engine. So his record on safety isn't brilliant.

He had moved my granddaughter (when he was four years old - and a dainty four year old at that) to a base booster only but relented and moved her back into her old seat when my daughter pointed him to the government safety guidelines (which he disagreed with, but said "to keep the peace" he'd go back to the old seat).

My daughter says that the little 'un is sitting on the harness straps and he is now just using the lap and diagonal. As we don't have a seat that used a harness and a lap and diagonal, we didn't know if this was correct, safe or legal.

The above answers from janed9388, Kynthia and pigpen have reassured my daughter that the little 'un will be safe in his car. Thank you for your replies.