Don’t risk your child’s life with cheap “car seats”

Wheel Well – a registered Section 21 company that strives to be the most visible, audible and effective advocate of road safety for children in South Africa – has warned of “an illegal and deadly car seat that has made its way to South Africa”.


The inexpensive “portable” car seat harness, which can be bought online, offers parents a false sense of security and does not help to prevent injury or death to a child in the event of a crash.

“All parents want to protect their children as best they can. When it comes to child car safety, the correct child car seat can seem extremely expensive and some parents may be tempted to choose a cheaper alternative,” says Peggy Mars, founder and director at Wheel Well.

“We are anxious to inform parents of the hazards of using this kind of device instead of a proper child car seat which conforms to European Union (EU) regulations. Authorities in the United Kingdom have conducted crash tests on cheaply made and untested ‘portable’ car seat harnesses and the results are sobering.

“These cheap, imported seats were shown to disintegrate at a low-speed collision of under 60 km/h, propelling a crash test dummy into the front of the vehicle. To put this in perspective, a normal child car seat is tested to survive impacts at speeds in excess of 100 km/h,” Mars explains.

In South Africa, child car seats must adhere to EU standards and must feature an orange sticker showing the European Economic Commission stamp of approval.

“Prevent a lifetime of regret and make sure you buy the correct, legal seat for your child. If you cannot afford a new correctly certified car seat, rather get in contact with Wheel Well and we will try to help you out,” Mars concludes.

You can view the crash test footage here.