ROAD safety experts and police officers will be checking child car seats in Yate next week.

Officers from South Gloucestershire Council’s road safety team and Avon and Somerset police are joining forces the safety checks at Yate Fire Station on Wednesday, July 9 (8.30am-4pm).

Police officers will stop vehicles carrying young people to allow the road safety team to check if child car seats are fitted correctly.

The council said it was offering the free checks to reassure parents that their children are safe and secure when travelling by car. It comes after previous similar checks revealed two thirds of child car seats were fitted incorrectly.

Council road safety officer Pamela Williams said: “It’s important to check the seat is correctly fitted because in the event of a collision a loose harness could cause a child to be ejected from the child seat which could be fatal.

“Other minor adjustments we can carry out include removing headrests because sometimes they can get in the way of car seats being securely fitted in a vehicle. We can also adjust any twists in seatbelts which can mean they are less effective in protecting your child in a collision.”

Young passengers will also be measured to ensure they are the correct height to safely use seatbelts. The legal requirement is 135cm unless they are sitting on a booster seat.

In June, a road safety check in Kingswood found out of a total of 115 child car seats Checked, 15 had with major faults and 35 had minor faults.

Major faults included seats belts requiring re-routing and many of the minor faults were with harnesses that needed adjusting, headrests that had to be removed and twists in the seatbelts.

In addition, seven seats were discovered to be incompatible with the vehicle and 14 children had no seat or any type of restraint and were under the legal limit of 135cm. Drivers with no child car seat were cautioned and had to ask a family member to bring a seat to the location by a friend or face a fine of up to £100.

South Gloucestershire Police Neighbourhoods Inspector Bob Evely said: “Having the right child car seat, properly fitted, is really important to keep children safe. We have found that two out of three children were not seated safely, so it’s really worth your time to come along and get yours checked over.

“Our neighbourhood teams are happy to work alongside the council at these checks to help to improve safety for all road users.”