Parents need to take time to correctly fit the car seat

Every year more than 100,000 children are involved in crashes where it is crucial how well the seat is fitted.

Most receive little more than a jolt, but 10,000 are hurt, with 670 seriously injured and 30 killed, the AA said.

Too many parents make mistakes or take shortcuts to keep children happy, the AA Motoring Trust said.

It highlighted the case of a boy who died after suffering massive internal injuries in an accident when his body jack-knifed.

He had been strapped in using only the lap belt of the seat, while the diagonal strap was left behind his back because it was uncomfortable.

Fitting a child seat incorrectly is a serious issue and one that parents or childminders must not ignore Andrew Howard AA Motoring Trust road safety head

The AA wants a single European system of car seat, which it says would mean any child seat could be fitted in any car.

Tests carried out at just 19mph with seats that had been fitted incorrectly produced results which would have seriously injured any child sitting in them.

In some cases the child had been completely unrestrained, but in others the child was sitting in a poorly-fitted seat.

"Fitting a child seat incorrectly is a serious issue and one that parents or childminders must not ignore," AA Motoring Trust road safety head Andrew Howard said.

"We estimate that around two thirds of all child seats are incorrectly fitted and a third could cause serious injury to the child.

"Sometimes parents make mistakes fitting seats, sometimes they take short cuts or make compromises in how they are worn in an effort to keep children quiet."