Our tests should be a wake-up call for the car industry and seat makers

Which? editor Helen Parker

A Which? report published on Monday also found that most of Britain's 22 best-selling child safety seats would fail to prevent serious or fatal injuries.

Mother & Baby Magazine found that one in five parents admitted allowing their young children to travel in someone else's vehicle without a car seat - often in a grandparent's car.

Of those who did have child seats, half did not know if they had bought the right seat for their car, while 55% of parents admitted using a second-hand car seat that could be useless.

Nine out of 10 parents also said they had problems fitting seats and only 6% said they received any fitting advice from retailers.

Launching a campaign for a change in the law, the magazine said it wanted to see heavy-on-the-spot fines introduced for any driver caught flouting the law.

Fatal injuries

The magazine's editor, Dani Zur, said: "The law in the UK for protecting children travelling in cars is woefully inadequate.

"As the law stands, it is perfectly legal for a baby, toddler or older child to rattle around in the back seat of a car with absolutely no seatbelt restraint of any kind."

The Which? report suggested that child safety seats often fail to offer adequate protection in car crashes despite complying with recognised safety standards.

The study, which looked at the 22 best-selling seats in Britain, said most would fail to prevent serious or fatal injuries.

Violence

One popular seat, sold by the baby and childcare retailer Mothercare, was rated to be so poor that researchers gave it an "unprecedented" mark of 0 out of a possible 100.

Which? said a crash test dummy placed in the chain's Daytona seat was thrown about with such violence it "would have caused brain damage or death" in a child.

Mothercare said it had recently modified the Daytona model and that the seat tested by Which? was no longer available.

The editor of Which?, Helen Parker, said: "Our tests should be a wake-up call for the car industry and seat makers.

"None of these manufacturers are actually doing anything wrong because their seats comply to existing standards, but those standards are not set at an acceptable level."